QUITO, Jan. 11 -- The 23rd Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) opened Sunday in Ecuador's capital city of Quito, gathering parliamentary leaders from 17 countries in the region.

The importance of the Asia-Pacific region on the world stage is increasing, which makes it a fundamental stage for the discussion and solution of global problems, said Forum Chairman and President of Ecuador's National Assembly Gabriela Rivadeneira in her inaugurating speech.

The forum is committed to promoting a new, more equitable, cooperation among countries, offering opportunities to exchange experiences on parliamentary practices, she said.

Rivadeneira called on the Asia-Pacific parliaments to build bridges and reach consensus needed to provide answers to the problems of an increasingly complex world.

Head of Japanese delegation Hirofumi Nakasone, representing Yasuhiro Nakasone, Honorary President of Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum, said at the opening ceremony that culture is the most important achievement of the human race and the international community should promote cultural exchanges to help strengthen the global culture.

"Exchanges through culture, art, academia and sports are essential to world peace and we must work even harder to strengthen ties between all countries of the world through the development of communication technologies to break borders and remove barriers that still exist between countries," Nakasone said.

Achieving this goal will depend on the consciousness of human beings and cultural exchanges among all, Nakasone said.

In the following plenary sessions, delegates will address topics such as regional security, cyber espionage and privacy rights, Asia-Pacific economic cooperation, free trade and new global financing structure, as well as cooperation in disaster prevention and climate change.

The APPF is a loosely-structured and non-exclusive forum of national parliamentarians who attend either as delegates of their parliaments or in their personal capacities.

Established in Tokyo in 1993, the forum aims to promote greater cooperation among legislative bodies in the Asia-Pacific region.