DAVID Miliband, one of the key speakers at the forum, stoutly defended the continued existence of the North-East Assembly.

Last November, 78 per cent of people in the North-East voted against the concept of a directly-elected regional assembly, which reprieved the existing assembly.

It is made up of councillors and community stakeholders, who are appointed to scrutinise the workings of the regional development agency, One NorthEast.

Because of the result of the referendum, many No campaigners have called for the assembly to be scrapped. But Mr Miliband, MP for South Shields and the Minister for Communities and Local Government, said: "The North-East Assembly gives a local voice on regional decisions.

"The last Government set up regional offices in 1994, but there was no local voice about economic regeneration, planning or housing policy, which is all decided at a regional level.

"The assembly gives local councillors, local businesspeople and the local voluntary sector a voice.

"They scrutinise the regional development agency, they are the regional planning authority and they draw up the regional spatial strategy - that's a local voice on regional matters rather than those things being decided in Westminster.

"The people who are saying abolish the regional assembly are actually saying give all the power back to London. What's the point of that?"

In his address to the forum, Mr Miliband said this was "an absolutely key moment for the North-East economy".

"We are an economy in transition," he said, "but there's never been a better time to make that transition. Britain has never been as well-placed for economic progress for 50 years.

"The North-East has the creativity, the global links and the ingenuity that makes niche markets - it's all there."

He said that what was holding the region back was a lack of aspiration, particularly among the young.

"Aspiration provides the vision that blows the cobwebs out of the old ways of doing things and it is aspiration which is going to make the difference between success and failure over the next 20 or 30 years," he said.

"Aspiration seems to be the missing link in our economic equation.

"Fifty per cent of young people in the region don't know what jobs there are for them and 60 per cent say they have to leave the region if they want to fulfil their ambitions."

Mr Miliband, who is seen as a rising star in the Labour Government, said the older generation had to play a role in boosting youngsters' dreams.

"Young people's lack of knowledge, confidence, opportunities and expectations are keys, but one of the biggest dampeners on aspiration is the attitude of adults.

"Everytime we say exams are not worth the paper they are written on, we damage the aspirations of young people."

* Alan Clarke, chief executive of One NorthEast, said that if the North-East was to close the gap between its output and that of the South, it needed to create at least 20,000 new business and get another 60,000 people back into employment.