State President Nguyen Minh Triet and a high-level Vietnamese delegation arrived in Singapore on Nov. 13 for the 17th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting slated for Nov. 14-15.

The visit was made at the invitation of the host country’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Present at the airport to welcome the Vietnamese delegation were Singapore’s Minister of National Development Mah Bow Tan, Singaporean Ambassador to Vietnam, Simon Wong, and Vietnamese Ambassador to Singapore, Nguyen Trung Thanh.

President Nguyen Minh Triet is scheduled to attend the APEC CEO Summit on Nov. 14 and deliver a keynote speech at the discussion session on investment in emerging markets. Before attending the main activities of the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, the Vietnamese President will meet with leaders of many major multi-national groups, including Microsoft and Siemens.

The 17th APEC’s Economic Leaders Meeting took place amid growing confidence that Asia-Pacific has recovered from the global economic crisis earlier than other regions and can be viewed as an engine to spur growth worldwide.

Founded two decades ago, APEC is continuously developing, accounting for more than 50 percent of the world’s GDP and 57 percent of global trade./.