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Asia 2015: Promoting Growth, Ending Poverty

6 March 2006

"Asia has the potential to eradicate absolute poverty – this could be one of the world’s great success stories."

Hilary Benn MP, UK Secretary of State for International Development

Asia 2015 conference, Tony Blair, Hilary Benn, Shaukat Aziz

Politicians, business leaders and aid agency workers gathered in London today to find ways to end poverty in Asia.

Tony Blair warned delegates at the event in London that Asia faces major challenges over the next decade. He appeared along with Shaukat Aziz, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, who he earlier greeted to Number 10. While in Downing Street, External linkMr Aziz met with UK rescue workers who helped out during the Pakistan earthquake of 2005

Beyond development

Tony Blair, Shaukat Aziz, HE Sri Mulyani Indrawati

Asia has had notable success in the last twenty years, taking more people out of absolute poverty than any other region at any time in history. It’s possible to eradicate absolute poverty in Asia in a generation – this could be one of the world’s greatest success stories.

But Asia also faces huge challenges in nutrition, health, education, water and sanitation, governance and social exclusion. Economic progress means that the nature of development partnerships is changing, and Asian countries want to set a new direction for a broader-based partnership that goes beyond development assistance.

For more information about DFID news and case studies, visit our Asia regional homepage

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Sharing best practice

Keat Chhon, Senior Minister, Ministry for Economy and Finance, Cambodia and Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister for Economic Affairs, PakistanCo-hosted by DFID, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, the conference involved around 150 high-level politicians, experts, private sector, civil society and development agency representatives.

They examined development challenges facing Asia and to develop ideas on the way forward over the next ten years. Asia 2015 is also an opportunity to showcase Asian success and share good practice within the region and globally.

The main conference theme was partnerships for development. Speakers included:

  • Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan
  • Dr Surakiart Sathirathai, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand
  • Vo Hong Phuc, Minister for Planning and Investment, Vietnam
  • Haruhiko Kuroda, President of the Asian Development Bank, and
  • Hilary Benn MP, UK Secretary of State for International Development.

A full list of speakers is available at theExternal linkAsia 2015 conference website.

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Conference resources

The Asia 2015 website ran a discussion forum to debate conference topics until 10 March 2006.

The discussion began with a statement from Simon Maxwell, Director of the Overseas Development Institute, in which he outlines the eight main areas in which the future of Asia's development partnerships may take shape.External linkRead Simon's views and read discussion postings

A full conference programme and papers for Asia 2015 conference, prepared specially for the event by a range of experts from Asia and the UK, are available at theExternal linkAsia 2015 conference website.

Speeches

Further information