Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet on Nov. 15 called on APEC economies to join hands to bring the regional and world economies back to healthy and durable growth.

President Triet made the request at the second retreat, themed “Sustaining Growth,” of the 17th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, which was held in Singapore .

The Vietnamese leader urged APEC members to put forth a strong message towards the upcoming Copenhagen conference on climate change, and increase transfer of technology and assistance to developing economies to help them develop clean technology, mitigate impacts of climate change and reinforce their natural disaster prevention and control capacity.

He also made a number of proposals regarding the coordination in terms of both policy and action among APEC economies in a bid to ensure economic recovery and promote trade and investment.

At the session, leaders of APEC economies have pledged to maintain economic stimulus measures and put in place a comprehensive, balanced and sustainable growth policy to ensure durable economic recovery.

The leaders promised to join efforts to cope with challenges posed by climate change and work towards a successful outcome of the UN conference on climate change scheduled for Copenhagen, Denmark, next month.

They were also committed to open markets, refrain from imposing new trade and investment barriers, resist protectionism in any forms, and work together to the aim of concluding the Doha round of negotiations in 2010.

The 17th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting wrapped up on the afternoon of Nov. 15 after adopting a joint declaration themed “Sustaining growth, Connecting the region” and a statement by APEC leaders on “A new growth paradigm for a connected Asia-Pacific in the 21st century.”

On the sidelines of the session, President Triet held bilateral meetings with leaders from China, Russia, the US, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Chile, Peru and the Republic of Korea to discuss ways to beef up bilateral cooperation and coordination at APEC and other regional and international forums.

The leaders of these nations all lauded Vietnam’s achievements in economic development and growth maintenance. They also pledged to collaborate with Vietnam when it assumes the ASEAN chair in 2010.

On the same day, President Triet attended an APEC high-level meeting on climate change which was held under the joint initiative of Australia and Mexico ./.