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Heavyweights from Asia and across the world Monday vowed to launch an all-out attack on poverty to help lift millions of people living in the continent out of poverty.
They also underscored the need for learning from Asia as it has myriads of development successes.
Speaking at the opening session of a two-day conference, the Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn MP, called upon the international community to extend support to Asia to help overcome its "many major challenges".
The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) in collaboration with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is organising the "Asia 2015: promoting growth, ending poverty" in London.
In his welcome address, Benn said: "The world has a lot to learn from Asia's development successes - not only South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, but, more recently, in China, India and Vietnam. But Asia still faces many major challenges which need the world's support" The UK lawmaker dubbed poverty as "a silent tsunami" and said it killed through diseases, increasing the likelihood of mothers dying in pregnancy and childbirth and malnutrition.
"If the global community addresses such challenges now, in a generation, poverty eradication in Asia could be one of the world's great success stories." Benn told the global gathering.
Bangladesh Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman spoke at the inaugural session, chaired by ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda.
In his speech, Rahman made an appeal to the global donor community to take care of the needs of Asia as it is home to countries such as Japan and South Korea, on the one hand, and Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, on the other.
He suggested the developed countries should stress on trade preferences, rather than on aid.
According to an information received in Dhaka, the Commonwealth Business Council launched "Business Action in Asia" on the sidelines of the high-profile conference.
Business Action in Asia will provide an opportunity to learn and benchmark from successful business activity and to develop partnerships for the longer-term sustainable economic development of the Asian region.
The Asia 2015 conference will focus on the future challenges and risks to Asian development up to 2015 and will explore how to manage these risks more effectively including through partnerships between Asian countries and the international community.
An eight-member home delegation led by Saifur Rahman is attending the conference, scheduled to conclude today.
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