On January 3, the 74th National Public Security Conference solemnly opened in Hanoi under the chair of Senior Lieutenant General To Lam, Politburo member, Minister of Public Security.

On behalf of the Public Security Central Party Committee and leaders of the Ministry of Public Security, Senior Lieutenant General Bui Van Nam briefed the delegates on the task performance of the Public Security Forces in 2018 and the forces’ haft-term (2016-2018) results.

Accordingly, 2018 was a year of success of the People's Public Security Forces, as the forces, under the sound leadership of the Party and State, with good coordination of ministries, branches and localities, and great supports from the people, excellently accomplished their main tasks of protecting national security and ensuring social order and safety, contributing to strengthening political security and creating a safe, peaceful, stable environment for the country’s socio-economic development and foreign affairs.

Over the year, the Public Security Forces have well performed their function of taking the initiative in grasping, analyzing, forecasting the situation, providing timely advice for the Party and the State to give guidelines and policies on politics, economy, foreign affairs as well as protection of national interests, and maintenance of security and social order.

The Public Security Forces have also actively developed plans and taken drastic measures to ensure absolute security and safety of the country's important political events during the year, contributing to promoting Vietnam’s image of peace, friendship, and improving its prestige and the position in the international arena.

Deputy Minister Bui Van Nam speaking at the event

The Public Security Forces have met all targets and surpassed some of the targets set out by the National Assembly in preventing and controlling crimes. Especially, the forces have denied any hostile political organizations from forming their bases inside the country.

Meanwhile, the fight against crimes has obtained large achievements, greatly contributing to a secure and healthy environment for all people. The forces launched a number of high-intensity campaigns in 2018 to attack criminals. According to official statics, during 2018, the police force discovered and handled more than 43,000 criminal cases, arrested 87,000 suspects.

During the year, the police force also detected and solved major cases relating to corruption, economics, smuggling and hi-tech crimes. In the fight against drug-related crime, the force has successfully invested 22,000 cases, arrested more than 33,000 suspects and seized 1.3 tons of heroin, 3.3 tons and more than a million of synthetic drug tablets.

Besides, the execution of criminal sentences and temporary detention were implemented strictly under the laws.

Regarding the State management of residence, the Public Security Forces have well managed the entry, exit and residency of foreigners while accelerating the building of the National Database on population and residence management.

The police also controlled the number of traffic accidents and losses caused by accidents, actively participated in disaster relief and rescue, and restored a large number of weapons, explosives and supporting tools illegally stored by people.

In 2018, the legal and administrative and judicial reform sector under the Ministry of Public Security achieved important results. During the year, the Ministry of Public Security focused on building and improving the legal system on security and social order while successfully completing and submitting the Law on Cyber Security, Public Security Law (amended), Law on Amnesty (amended), Law on Protection of State Secrets to the National Assembly for approval, the Law on Criminal Execution (amended) for comments.

Besides, the Public Security Forces in collaboration with ministries, branches, functional agencies, especially the Vietnam People's Army, successfully deployed and fulfilled many major working plans and spread the movement “Protecting National security” across the society.

In 2018, the Ministry of Public Security took comprehensive measures to strengthen Party building and force building while taking the lead in implementing the Resolution of the 12th Party Central Committee’s fourth Meeting on Party building in association with Resolution No. 22-NQ/TW issued by the Politburo and documents of the Public Security Central Party Committee on renovating and streamlining the Public Security Forces’ apparatus for more efficiency and effectiveness.

All public security agencies and units under the Ministry of Public Security in 2018 also focused on observing the disciplines and regulations of the People Public Security Forces, promptly detected and strictly handled wrongdoings within the forces. These works were highly appreciated by the people.

The Ministry of Public Security also continued to renovate and improve the quality of the performance of its other functions. Particularly, it served as a strategic think-tank to the Party and State on national security, social order and safety. Additionally, foreign affairs and international cooperation; strategic research, scientific research, theoretical research and inspection were all well performed in 2018.

Regarding missions for 2019, Deputy Minister Bui Van Nam emphasized that 2019 is a very significant year for the successful implementation of the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress and the Resolution of the sixth Congress of the Public Security Central Party Congress (tenure 2015-2020).

In order to fulfill the assigned tasks in 2019, the Public Security Central Party Committee determined that the forces should continue actively grasping the situation, in time discover and defeat any conspiracies and sabotage activities of hostile forces while striving to accomplish excellently all tasks of ensuring internal political security, cultural and ideological security, cyber security, economic security, social security and security in strategic areas, and safeguard absolute security and safety of the country's important political events, contributing to maintaining political stability, and creating a more peaceful, secure, safe and healthy environment for national economic, cultural, social development and foreign affairs.

The Public Security Central Party Committee also urged all agencies and units of the Public Security Forces to promote their capabilities while strictly observing the laws and disciplines of the forces.

The focus of work of the whole Public Security Forces in 2019 is "to complete institutions and strengthen grassroots-level units" while the motto of the whole Public Security Forces is "Proactive, exemplary, disciplined, responsible and efficient”.

By Thien Minh