|PIC1|During the Asia 2015 : "Promoting Growth and Ending Poverty in Asia" two-day conference in London this week, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that Asia faces major challenges in tackling poverty in the next decade, reports The BBC (UK).

Although tens of millions have been lifted out of poverty in recent decades, Asia is still home to two-thirds of the world's poor, Blair noted, and added that by 2015 more than one billion people will be living in desperate poverty in Asia.

On behalf of this, head of Christian Aid's Asia program Robin Greenwood writes in a commentary published in The Guardian (UK) that organisations with their roots in Asian civil society or global groups with close ties to Asian society have a big part to play in ensuring that poor people get their say in the drive for development.

These organisations need to act as voices for the many, deliver basic services, be first to the scene in crises, stick by communities through thick and thin, and hold to account those who have duties towards Asian communities.

If Asia's deepest poverty is to end within a decade, Asian governments, the international community and aid workers need to encourage the most excluded to call the tune. And this calls for new slants on partnership, argues Greenwood.

|TOP|Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz reckoned the three key factors in reducing Asian poverty were "deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation."

Aziz, writes The Associated Press, also told the Asia 2015 conference that internal conflicts, terrorism and the challenge of securing stocks of energy, water and food posed the biggest threats to the continent's growth. He said resolving political disputes is also crucial, but that Asia has the potential to serve as a catalyst for a "new world order, based on peace, equity and shared prosperity.”