With the participation of Party committees at all levels, the work of developing the Party in non-state enterprises (SOEs) has achieved remarkable results. However, a comprehensive, realistic and objective assessment shows that this is still a difficult task with many challenges. These difficulties are recognized not only in Quang Ninh, but also in many provinces and cities across the country.

The “gaps”

Cai Lan Vietnam Japan Paper Materials Production Company Limited (Cai Lan Industrial Park) is a foreign-invested enterprise established in 2004 with the task of processing and purchasing wood chips for export and planting raw material forests for the Japanese market. In January 2012, the Party Cell of Cai Lan Vietnam Japan Paper Materials Production Company Limited was established. However, from 2019 to present, the Party development work of the Party Cell has remained "stuck in place". For nearly 6 years, the Party Cell has not been able to admit new Party members. Enterprises, agencies, and organizations have spent many years persistently pursuing, mobilizing, and persuading, but have not yet achieved the desired results.

Party cell secretary and director of Viet Nhat Cai Lan Paper Materials Production Company Limited, Nguyen Duc Quang, said: Currently, the company has 61 cadres, workers, and laborers aged 40-55, who have been with the company since its establishment. For many years, the company has not recruited new workers. Older workers are one of the biggest difficulties affecting the Party development work of the Party cell. In addition, difficulties from the economy, epidemics, natural disasters, especially the recent storm No. 3, which caused the company to suffer a preliminary loss of about 15 billion VND, have seriously affected production and business activities, some positions had to temporarily stop operating, workers' salaries decreased, so workers were not interested, or did not have the desire to join the Party. In 2023, the Party cell completed training and completed the profile of an outstanding mass to introduce to the Party for admission, but this mass transferred jobs.

Thanh Dat Uong Bi Company Limited is directed by Mr. Le Trong Thanh. Although Mr. Thanh has 35 years of experience as Party Cell Secretary of Thanh Dat Uong Bi Company Limited, the Party Cell's work of developing Party members has encountered obstacles in the past. The unit has 120 cadres, employees, and workers, including 43 Party members. The Party Cell is currently completing the profile of 1 person.

Party cell secretary Le Trong Thanh frankly shared: The Party cell always cares about, nurtures, and creates conditions for employees in the company to develop to become Party members. In addition to creating maximum conditions in terms of time, arranging for employees to take on important positions in the workshop and the company to create conditions for employees to promote their capacity, the Party cell and professional departments also research and build incentive policies for the elite to strive to join the Party. However, due to the stressful working conditions, it has somewhat affected the psychology and needs of a part of the employees. After working or working overtime, employees often want to take time to rest, many people are not interested in participating in social, organizational, and political activities. Even a part of the employees have not yet awakened to revolutionary ideals, are afraid to join organizations, afraid of Party activities, afraid of paying Party dues, union dues, etc.

Not only the Party Cell of Thanh Dat Uong Bi Company Limited, in Uong Bi City, due to difficulties in leading organizations to propagate, mobilize, and introduce excellent sources of people to train and recruit Party members; some businesses have had declining revenue, unstable employment for employees, long-term unpaid wages, tax debts, and social insurance debts... therefore, for many years, the Party Committee of Private Economic Units in the city has not fulfilled its target of developing Party members. By the end of September, the Party Committee had only admitted 16 Party members, completing 64% of the 2024 plan.

Maintaining the activities and developing party organizations and party members is difficult, but recently, a number of party cells in state-owned enterprises in the province have had to dissolve because the company is no longer operating in production and business, party members have retired, or quit their jobs, and moved their party activities to their place of residence. In Cam Pha City, from the beginning of 2024 until now, due to narrowing production and business conditions and unemployment, many party members of the Party Cell of Cam Pha Housing Development and Construction Joint Stock Company and the Party Cell of Phu Cuong Enterprise have requested to terminate their labor contracts and move to new units, or have requested to quit their jobs, and have the need to move their activities to their place of residence. The Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Private Economic Units in Cam Pha City has reported and asked for the opinion of the Party Executive Committee to dissolve these two party cells, and at the same time transfer all party members to their place of residence according to their personal wishes.

Similarly, Ba Che district currently has 78 enterprises and enterprise branches, however, from the beginning of the year to September 2024, the district Party Committee has only admitted 1 party member in a state-owned enterprise, operating in the village party cell. Up to now, Ba Che has not had a party organization in a state-owned enterprise. According to the general assessment of localities, the development of party organizations and party members still faces difficulties, because most small and micro enterprises employ few workers, or seasonal workers, are family-based, and pay little attention to political tasks...

At the expanded Executive Committee meeting to review and evaluate the results of the implementation of tasks in the past 9 months and deploy tasks for the last 3 months of 2024 of the Party Committee of Private Economic Units of Ha Long City, delegates attending the conference pointed out: Promoting the role of the political leadership nucleus of the Party organization in SOEs still has difficulties, especially for affiliated Party cells and Party cells with Party Committee members who are not in the leadership apparatus of the company; the reporting regime is sometimes not timely; inspection and supervision work has been strengthened, but there are still units that have not received due attention. In addition, the training, practice and compliance with Party regulations and State laws of some Party members are not strict, leading to violations requiring disciplinary action; the direction to consolidate and improve the effectiveness of the activities of political and social organizations in enterprises is still limited; creating sources for recruiting Party members in some units is still difficult.

The province currently has 11,574 enterprises, state-owned enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises. Meanwhile, there are only 30 grassroots party committees with 410 affiliated party cells and 13 grassroots party cells, including a total of 5,482 party members. This shows that the work of developing party organizations and party members in enterprises in general and state-owned enterprises in particular still has many "gaps".

Root cause

Deputy Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Organization Board Nguyen Duc Tho said: The development of party organizations and party members in state-owned enterprises in the province still faces many difficulties, so the quantity, quality and effectiveness of party organizations and party members in some establishments are not commensurate with the scale and development of the enterprises. Through understanding, this is a common situation in many provinces and cities across the country.

The main reason is that the issuance of regulations and guidelines by the Central Committee and Party Committees at all levels on Party building work in private economic units is not strong enough and lacks uniformity. The content and leadership methods of Party organizations and unions in private economic units are still slow to innovate.

The number of regular employees in small and micro enterprises is not large, mainly seasonal contracts, with unstable working hours. Most party members in state-owned enterprises are unskilled workers, rarely participating in the board of directors, the board of directors, the team of technical experts... so they are not really representative and prestigious. Some private business owners, especially FDI enterprises, are not interested in establishing party organizations. Most of the cadres doing party and mass organization work in private economic units are part-time, so the time fund for expertise and profession in some private economic units is not valued and arranged reasonably.

Some local Party committees said that currently, most business owners are not Party members, so their awareness of the position and role of Party organizations and socio-political organizations is not really complete, and there is still a fear of political and organizational constraints, so there have not been many moves to create conditions for developing Party members and establishing Party organizations.

According to Do Duc Hong, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Private Economic Units of Cam Pha City, the Party Committee of Private Economic Units of Cam Pha City currently has 28 Party cells with 461 Party members. However, only 19 of them are business owners and are active in 15 Party cells. Most of the owners of state-owned enterprises are not Party members, so in general, they pay much attention and focus on business profits, and have not created conditions for the establishment of socio-political organizations and Party organizations for workers to participate in activities. In some enterprises, workers are Party members, but because there is no Party cell, they have to participate in activities at their place of residence.

Socio-political organizations such as trade unions, youth, women's organizations, etc. are considered important foundations contributing to the development of party organizations and the development of strong and quality party members. However, many state-owned enterprises in the province do not have these organizations, or have them but they are not operating effectively, leading to certain difficulties in establishing party organizations. In addition to the fact that many business owners are not interested in and have not innovated the content and methods of organizing party activities to suit the characteristics of the enterprise, there are currently no mechanisms and policies to facilitate, support, and encourage enterprises to pay attention to and support the establishment and operation of party organizations and unions in enterprises.

According to statistics, the province currently has 1,121 grassroots trade union organizations with 81,278 union members at state-owned enterprises (accounting for 9.63% of the total number of enterprises in the province). Of which, private economic enterprises have 1,056 grassroots trade union organizations, with 39,299 union members; foreign-invested enterprises have 65 grassroots trade unions, with 41,979 union members. In addition to trade unions, the number of state-owned enterprises with youth unions is modest, with 61 organizations and 6,095 union members. This is also an issue that leaders at all levels, departments, branches and localities in the province have been concerned about in recent times.

Chairman of the Quang Yen Town Labor Federation Duong Dinh Quan said: The establishment of trade union organizations at enterprises has always received the attention and direction of the Party Committee, the government and the Provincial Labor Federation. However, up to now, in Quang Yen Town, there are only 57 grassroots trade union organizations at state-owned enterprises, including 19 trade union organizations at foreign-invested enterprises in industrial parks. The establishment of trade union organizations still has many difficulties, because there are currently no specific statistics on the number of enterprises in the province. Many enterprises register for business but do not operate, or operate but have few workers and laborers. Many enterprises rent land, factories, and infrastructure in one place, but operate in other units, so the construction of trade union organizations has not received due attention and is not strict. Approaching enterprises also faces many difficulties. This makes the work of propaganda, mobilization, and building trade union and party organizations still a big challenge.

The above-mentioned difficulties and obstacles have greatly affected the Party development work in the SOE sector. This reality requires the synchronous and drastic participation of the entire political system, gradually removing the "bottlenecks" so that enterprises can be more open and determined in establishing Party cells and developing Party members in their units.

                  Lesson 3: Solid "foundation", durable "root"