The Fiji president has used the Pacific conference for Parliamentarians in Suva to highlight the significance of last week's inaugural meeting of the Fiji-led Pacific Islands Development Forum.
Ratu Epeli Nailatikau was speaking as a former parliamentarian in Fiji, which has been without elected representatives since the 2006 military coup.
He has told the meeting on population development that young people are calling for Pacific leaders to work with them because they want quality education and decent jobs.
Ratu Epeli says the new Development Forum is inclusive.
"This historic move is a change from the past when most decision-making was predominantly confined to governments with limited, if any, input by the people that mattered the most."
Pacific conference for Parliamentarians will be on for three days.
