President Nguyen Minh Triet leading a high-level delegation left Hanoi on Nov. 13 for the 17th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting in Singapore on Nov. 14-15 at the invitation of the host country’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The President’s attendance aims to promote Vietnam’s role in the APEC, strengthen its alliance with regional countries and prepare for its performance as ASEAN chair in 2010.

The APEC 17 meeting, themed “Sustaining growth, connecting the region”, is seen as one of important impetus for the global economic growth, as the region is expected to overcome the global crisis earlier than others in the world.

APEC member economies now make up over 50 percent of the world’s GDP and 57 percent of the global trade, and nine of them are G20’s members.

Within the meeting’s framework, the Vietnamese delegation will hold talks with leaders of the APEC members and economic groups to boost the country’s comprehensive cooperation with its partners.

On the sidelines of the meeting, President Triet will attend the APEC CEO Summit 2009. He will delver a keynote speech at a debate on investment in newly-emerging markets scheduled for Nov. 14. He will also take part in the first ASEAN-US Leaders’ Conference on Nov. 15.

After the APEC 17, President Triet will pay a State visit to Singapore at the invitation of his Singaporean counterpart S.R. Nathan from Nov. 16-17.

Vietnam and Singapore have built up a long-standing friendship. The two countries established their diplomatic ties on Aug. 1, 1973, and regularly exchange high-level delegations.

The two countries have seen their economic, trade and investment ties grow strongly over the recent years.

Singapore is one of Vietnam’s top partners in trade and investment. The island country had by September 2009 injected nearly 17 billion USD in over 700 FDI projects in Vietnam, ranking fifth among foreign investors in the country. Singapore’s projects are mainly in services, industry, real estate, infrastructure and hotels.

Singapore is the third biggest trade partner of Vietnam with two-way trade reaching 12 billion USD in 2008. This year, Vietnam fetched 1.3 billion USD from exports to Singapore and imported goods worth 2.4 billion USD by the end of August.

The two countries have been efficiently executing a framework agreement on connecting the two economies in six fields, including investment, finance-banking, trade-service, transportation-logistics, education-training, and post telecoms.

The cooperation in education, health care, culture, tourism and judiciary has also brought fine results. The two countries cooperated in training 150 senior officials and 330 teachers. Every year Singapore grants some 200 short and long-term scholarships to Vietnamese students and in 2009 Vietnam has about 7,000 students studying in Singapore .

The two sides are working together in building an international maternity and paediatrics hospital in Vietnam with a total capital of 28 million USD.

Singapore also assists Vietnam in training lawyers and organising short-term training course on urban management and English skills for Vietnamese officials.

The State-level visit to Singapore by President Triet reflects the importance Vietnam attaches to its comprehensive cooperation with Singapore . It is expected to clarify directions for bilateral cooperation to grow, particularly in economics, trade and investment./.