(VOVworld) - Labor hero Colonel Nguyen Dang Giap, Chairman and Director General of 36 Corporation under the Ministry of Defense, has been honored under the “Glory Vietnam” program for his contributions to society. Today’s “Personality of the Week” will profile this hero, his efforts, and his great contributions to national construction.

Nguyen Dang Giap is a simple man, sincere and decisive. He has made his mark on society through 36 Corporation’s works of national stature, including the Meeting Hall of the Ministry of Defense, multi-purpose buildings at various universities, irrigation works, and hydroelectric plants. A soldier during the American war, Giap still embodies the virtues of one of Uncle Ho’s soldiers although he is now the director general of a big corporation. Doctor Phan Cong Nghia, Deputy Director of the National Economics University, talks about Giap’s role as contractor for one of the university’s major buildings: “He is enthusiastic about national education and training, and this showed in his work on the university’s training center, a major landmark of national education and training. He is a self-starter. While executing the work, he found some modern technology solutions for the building. A French design consultant praised them as safe and effective solutions”.

On a rainy night in Nghe An province, on the construction site of Khe Bo Hydroelectric Plant, Giap said his father, a teacher, taught his children to always be yourself. Perhaps as a result, Giap is sometimes outspoken with his superiors and partners. General Nguyen Huy Hieu, Deputy Minister of National Defense, claims Giap sometimes is too straightforward but doesn’t deny his effectiveness.

From an enterprise on the brink of dissolution, the corporation has achieved a high output under Giap’s leadership for the past three years. Debts were paid off, soldiers and workers all had jobs, and the enterprise made an advance. Higher authorities upgraded 36 Enterprise to 36 Corporation and the corporation has become a major brand name for Vietnam’s construction industry. Giap says: “The corporation’s achievements came from our development strategy of the past 5 to 7 years. We made breakthroughs in human resources, equipment, and science and technology, and continuously adjusted our administrative procedures”.

Labor hero Colonel Nguyen Dang Giap, Chairman and Director General of 36 Corporation

Wounded as a soldier, over the past 5 years Giap has mobilized his comrades to build 50 charity houses, present more than 300 savings books, and renovate hundreds of roads, medical stations, schools, and revolutionary martyr’s statues worth nearly 1.2 million USD. Giap again: “Being soldiers, we think that the army should have a strategy of building national defense through the economy. The army doing business reflects a policy of feudal society in which the army was closely connected with farmers, agriculture, and rural life. It’s important to maintain a national defense on three fronts: political, economic, and social welfare”.

Nguyen Dang Giap says such achievements are won through the efforts of officials and workers, not just him. He cares about engineers’ lives and encourages them to improve themselves. Captain Dang Thai Hung had admiring words for his manager: “He works very hard most of time. He still travels throughout the country to follow up hundreds of projects”.

For Giap, the most important things are the quality of the work associated with the corporation’s brand name and the material and spiritual well-being of the workers, officials, and soldiers in his unit.