Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet here Tuesday appealed for 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to beef up cooperation on trade and investment facilitation.

Addressing the opening plenary session of the three-day APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) meeting, Triet called on the economies to forge closer cooperation on such key spheres as "improving business environment, rationally taping and using fossil fuels, encouraging the research and transfer of new technologies, and solving problems due to the aging population."

APEC is facing series of challenges, including the gap in development level, fierce competition, complicated changes in prices, frequent occurrence of natural disasters and diseases, and signs of protectionism which hinder the movement of capital, service, technology and labor, he noted.

The Vietnamese president also highly appreciated ABAC's role in accelerating trade and investment facilitation and liberalization in the region.

He said ABAC's recommendations to be submitted to APEC economic leaders, including measures to speed up Doha negotiation rounds, stabilize energy markets, promote transparent trade agreements, and speed up regional trade and investment facilitation and liberalization, will be carefully considered by the leaders during their meetings on Nov. 18-19.

ABAC members will have a direct dialogue with APEC leaders on Nov. 18.

Founded by APEC economic leaders in 1995 to provide important business advice to the leaders, ABAC comprises up to three representatives from the private economic sector of each APEC member economies.