The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that the work of searching, gathering, identifying martyrs with missing information and taking care of people with meritorious services, war invalids and martyrs' families is a very important political task that the Party and State pay great attention to, and directly lead and direct.

"In addition, the participation of associations, unions, and socio-political organizations, including the Vietnam Association for Supporting Families of Martyrs, has left many deep sentiments and humanistic meanings, which are highly appreciated by people with meritorious services, war invalids, martyrs' families, and society," the Deputy Prime Minister expressed.

Wishing to hear about the activities of the Vietnam Association for Supporting Families of Martyrs, both advantages and difficulties, coordination mechanisms, financial mobilization, participation of ministries, branches, socio-political organizations, technical units, etc., the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the need for close coordination, specific assignment of tasks, avoiding overlap for each association and socio-political organization, together with the Party and State to form a combined strength, focusing resources on the work of searching, gathering, and identifying martyrs with missing information, in parallel with activities to honor, show gratitude, and care for people with meritorious services, war invalids, and martyrs' families.

Lieutenant General Hoang Khanh Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam Association for Supporting Families of Martyrs, said that over the past 13 years, the Association's organizational network has continuously developed with more than 10,000 members, operating in 16 provincial-level associations, 24 branches under the Central Government, 96 district-level branches and equivalent.

Over the years, the Association has proactively collected and announced information about nearly 200,000 martyrs on the Association's websites and affiliated newspapers and websites; received and processed over 40,000 martyrs' files; advised and supported over 33,000 martyrs' families in searching for the remains of their loved ones; and sent 1,079 cases for DNA testing.

As a result, over 200 martyrs' families identified the remains of martyrs using empirical methods; correctly identified the identities of 494 martyrs; corrected information, collected and moved over 1,200 martyrs' remains back to their homeland.

The Association has actively carried out social work to honor martyrs, actively mobilized and called on units, agencies, businesses, and philanthropists to support and sponsor; proposed policies to support relatives and families of martyrs...

In addition, the Association has had cooperation programs and plans with many ministries, branches, central agencies, socio-political organizations, international organizations, etc.

At the meeting, representatives of the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on the implementation of the work of searching, collecting, and identifying martyrs' remains; the application of empirical methods and DNA testing to identify martyrs' remains; cooperation with foreign agencies and organizations to serve the activities of searching and collecting martyrs' remains...

The Deputy Prime Minister affirmed that the work of searching, collecting, and identifying the remains of martyrs who lack information is increasingly urgent while information about martyrs and their graves is increasingly scarce, witnesses are getting older, their memory is declining, the terrain is changing a lot, and many relatives of martyrs are elderly...

Emphasizing the role of socio-political associations and organizations in honoring and showing gratitude to heroic martyrs, taking care of people with meritorious services, war invalids, and martyrs' families, the Deputy Prime Minister requested that the Associations have plans and roadmaps to carry out immediate and long-term tasks.

The Deputy Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of National Defense to issue a document stipulating and guiding the process and conditions for accessing samples of martyrs' remains that lack information to conduct identification examinations.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Finance urgently complete technical standards and unit prices for the stages of searching, gathering, and DNA identification to determine the identities of martyrs' remains that lack information.

The Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continue to coordinate and cooperate with foreign archival agencies and organizations to access information to serve the search, collection, and identification of martyrs' remains with missing information.

"There are some things that ministries and branches can 'order' to the Association with resources, but there are some things that require direct coordination," the Deputy Prime Minister noted and believed that the Vietnam Association for Supporting Families of Martyrs will continue to innovate its methods of operation, effectively coordinate with ministries, branches, agencies, and mass organizations in accordance with its principles and goals.

At the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister also gave specific comments on the proposal of the Vietnam Association for Supporting Families of Martyrs to establish a fund to support the work of searching, collecting and identifying the remains of martyrs with missing information, and martyrs' families with difficulties; orienting the development of the Association's network, meeting the wishes of comrades, individuals and participating organizations, demonstrating the tradition of "repaying gratitude", not overlapping or duplicating with other organizations and unions, ensuring publicity and transparency.