The Law on Vietnam Coast Guard with 8 chapters, 41 articles was passed at the 6th session of the 14th National Assembly on November 19, 2018 and it took effect from July 1, 2019.

This was a particularly important event, which marked the growth and maturity of the Vietnam Coast Guard and created a solid legal basis for the Vietnam Coast Guard to well perform its functions, assigned tasks and powers, contributing to firmly defending sovereignty, jurisdiction, national security and ensuring order and safety, maintaining a peaceful and stable environment in the country’s islands and sea.

In implementation of the Prime Minister's Decision No. 1059/QD-TTg dated August 22, 2019, which approved the Project on propagating and disseminating the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard in the period of 2019-2023, the Coast Guard has coordinated with ministries, departments, and related agencies to organize many activities to bring the content of the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard to the masses across the country and international friends.

Bringing the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard into life is the obligation, rights and responsibilities of all citizens, organizations, and the entire political system.

The project on propagating and disseminating the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard in the period of 2019 - 2023 aims at two main target groups:

Performing propaganda activities so that all cadres, party members, the armed forces and people understand the Party's policy and viewpoints on the management and protection of the country’s sea and islands; mastering the basic issues of the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard, raising the awareness and responsibility of cadres, party members, the armed forces and the people towards the cause of management and protection of the country’s sea and islands and the responsibility for building the revolutionary, formal, elite and modern Vietnam Coast Guard; the positions, roles, duties and powers of the Vietnam Coast Guard in the new situation.

Performing propaganda activities so that countries in the world and in the region to fully and accurately understand the policies and laws on management and protection of the sea and islands of Vietnam in general and the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard in particular; building the image of Vietnam as a peace-loving country, a member of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a responsible country which always respects and strictly implements international commitments and willing to join international community to co-response to common challenges, towards the goal of maintaining a stable, peaceful, integrated and sustainable sea.

One of the important contents of the Project is to compile documents to propagate and disseminate the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard and distribute these documents to ministries, departments, central branches, localities, and units of the armed forces and related agencies and organizations; the military high commands at all levels; people in coastal areas and islands; functional forces of ministries, departments and branches related to the sea; diplomatic missions of Vietnam in foreign countries; the embassies of other countries in Vietnam and the law enforcement forces at sea of ​​other countries which have cooperative relationships with the Vietnam Coast Guard.

To accomplish this content, the High Command of Coast Guard has developed and issued Plan No.12921/KH-BTL dated October 24, 2019 on the compilation and release of materials to propagate and disseminate the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard, which assigns specific tasks to agencies and units participating in the compilation. So far, these agencies have been compiling eight documents including:

The Law on Vietnam Coast Guard and the document on details and measures for implementing the Law; Question and answer book about the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard; Outline of propagation and dissemination of the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard and documents detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law; Training materials for the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard; the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard and the catalog on the Vietnam Coast Guard (Vietnamese - English, Vietnamese - Chinese and the languages of ASEAN countries that have sea); Legal leaflets introducing the position, role, functions, duties and powers of the Vietnam Coast Guard; Handbook of Law of Vietnam Coast Guard; Propaganda Handbook for Fishermen of the Vietnam Coast Guard.

Some documents have been published and released to the target audience, ensuring the quality of the content, the form as well as the publication schedule.

The Coast Guard’s agencies have actively developed specific plans, coordinated with the local authorities and people to introduce the basic content of the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard to the party committees, authorities and people, socio-political organizations in coastal localities.

Propaganda is performed through many forms such as: sending groups to densely populated areas, where fishermen's ships and boats are moored to deliver leaflets; organizing specialized conferences for cadres, party members, civil servants, public employees, workers in agencies and organizations under the ministries, central branches and localities; organizing contests on legal knowledge, legal talks and seminars; combining the propaganda of the Vietnam Coast Guard Law with the implementation of mass mobilization programs such as the program "the Coast Guard accompanies fishermen", "The Coast Guard with ethnic minorities, religious followers"….

Propaganda of the Law on Vietnam Coast Guard on the mass media, newspapers, radio - television, magazines, and websites has also been organized by the Project Steering Committee and related agencies.

Thuy Nguyen