Vietnam is one of the countries heavily ravaged by war. One of the war-left legacies is tons of unexploded ordnance (UXO) scattering nationwide.

War-left UXO poses potential dangers and negative impacts on people’s life, production and activities while preventing us from exploiting and using natural resources for socio-economic development.

Since the national reunification, Vietnam has mobilized all its resources for the settlement of UXO consequences. Each year, the Government spends thousands of billion VND (millions of USD) on UXO clearance, detoxification of UXO-contaminated land, and dissemination and education activities to improve UXO awareness among the people. The Government has also issued various policies in favor of UXO victims regarding their social integration and household economic development. However, due to the country’s high rate of UXO-contamination and limited resources, the settlement of UXO consequences has faced considerable difficulties.

Seeing that the settlement of UXO consequences is an immediate mission which must be prioritized, over the past years, the Government has implemented various solutions. Most significant among those solutions is the ratification of the National Action Plan on the Settlement of UXO consequences for the 2010-2025 period (Program 504).

The birth of Program 504 marked a vigorous development of the field, showing the high determination of the whole political system. The act has helped enhance the mobilization of both domestic and overseas resources in an effort to boost the settlement of UXO consequences and its impacts on the country’s socio-economic life. To realize the contents of Program 504, on March 4, 2014, the Prime Minister signed Decision No.319/QD-TTg on the establishment of the Vietnam National Mine Act Center (VNMAC). The center is responsible for organizing, managing, running and implementing the mission of Program 504 in a systematic and effective manner.

As an organization reporting directly to the Prime Minister and managed by the Ministry of National Defense, VNMAC is responsible for chairing and coordinating with relevant organs and agencies to make policy proposals, build up legal corridor, and define goals and plans for each period. It is also assigned with the task of enhancing international cooperation and mobilizing aid at the national level.

VNMAC has cooperated with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and relevant units to propose to the Government the establishment and successful organization of the first meeting of the Mine Action Partnership Group (MAPG) after the war in Vietnam. MAPG is an open forum participated by ministries, sectors, localities, international development partners, embassies in Vietnam and non-governmental organizations. Via this forum, relevant parties shared information about policies, management mechanisms, other information, experience, and cooperation and mutual support in settling UXO consequences.

One of the important missions of Program 504 with impacts on the effectiveness of UXO consequence settlement in the coming time is the study, collection and analysis of data, the UXO-contamination mapping in the whole country. Authorized by the Prime Minister and Steering Committee 701, in April 2018, VNMAC officially published the data, showing an overall, precise and objective picture of the situation of UXO remnant and contamination in Vietnam. Those data have contributed and will contribute significantly to the planning and forming of mechanisms and prioritized policies in the socio-economic development of Vietnam.

Together with strategic missions, VNMAC is now partnering with foreign experts to organize training courses for the military engineer force in charge of detecting and clearing UXO nationwide under the IMAS (International Mine Action Standard), which also include medical first aid provision in mine action. Besides, VNMAC is cooperating with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, victims’ funds and associations and units at localities to present gifts and support victims with livelihoods, carry out dissemination and education activities to enhance people’s awareness of UXO dangers in localities heavily-contaminated with UXO. VNMAC and partners have also coordinated to implement components of Vietnam-Republic of Korea project on UXO consequence settlement in the period of 2018-2020 in the two provinces of Quang Binh and Binh Dinh. These are encouraging achievements of VNMAC that have been highly appreciated by the Vietnamese people and international organizations.

The settlement of war-left UXO consequences will continue to be implemented for the coming years. Therefore, the VNMAC staffs have always been highly determined that this is a hard mission but also a great pride as each of the staffs partly contribute to the settlement of UXO consequences after the war. Though there still remains a lot of work to be done, all of the VNMAC staffs are unanimous and determined to best fulfill all assigned missions, all for the goal of clearing Vietnam from the list of UXO-contaminated countries, significantly contributing to the country’s socio-economic development.

Major General Phung Ngoc Son

Chief of the Engineer Corps and VNMAC Director General