You cannot open a newspaper or listen to the news without seeing the impressive statistics and stories about economic growth in Asia or reading dire warnings about the threat posed to the European economy. So why am I writing about aid and development assistance for Asia?

Asia is a huge and diverse region. The skyscrapers of Mumbai and Shanghai are symbols of an impressive success. But they are not the whole Asian story. Huge inequalities continue to exist across the region. In some cases, the divide between rich and poor is growing as a result of that same economic miracle and the resulting rapid urbanisation and enormous social change. Developing Asian countries is not only the right thing to do, it's eminently sensible.

Let's look at what has been achieved already. High and sustained growth in successful Asian countries has led to the greatest number of people being lifted out of poverty in human history. Country success stories abound. In recent years, China has lifted 400 million people out of extreme poverty; Vietnam has doubled the size of its economy in the last decade and at the same time has reduced poverty faster than anyone else. Since the early 1990s, India has lifted 12 million people out of poverty every single year. What are the implications for Asia as a whole if those successes can be repeated? What are the implications for world poverty if the global community can learn from Asia's success?

Asia, in partnership with the international community, has a real chance of eliminating absolute poverty in a generation. That's more than 600 million people, currently living on less than a dollar a day, whose lives could be measurably improved by clean water, access to basic healthcare and a host of other services that we in the UK take for granted. But if the simple moral case is not enough, let me set out some of the practical reasons why the global community should support poverty eradication in Asia.

We in the international community have a stake in Asia succeeding just as much as Asians have a stake in the international community accommodating their emerging economic dynamism.

Let's start with the environment. To achieve growth, poor countries will use more and more power and consume more and more resources. The international community should work with Asian countries to help them as they develop better ways of generating power, use forests and water supplies more sustainably, and work to manage the environmental impact arising from economic growth. And the international community must focus on the consequences of this growth for the planet, because -- above all in the case of climate change -- unless we tackle this issue now, it will have a huge effect on all of us in years to come.

Next, take the question of competition. Poor people are the private sector. They are the farmers and small businesses that we are trying to help.

Some development campaigns say little explicitly about the creation of more and better jobs for poor people. I think there is little real debate about growth. There can even be hostility to the idea of international integration into the global economy. Some argue that globalisation is a race to the bottom. But ask poor people, as I do wherever I travel, where the best prospect for escaping poverty lies. They'll tell you it is through self-employment or business -- "a good job." If they ignore job creation and opportunities for poor people to contribute economically, poor countries will be risking the sustainability of their growth success. And that's in no-one's interest.

And finally, if, together, we don't tackle poverty, injustice and inequality then we will never have a safe and secure world, wherever we live. Ensuring peace and security is the foundation of any development.

All this means that Asia has the potential to eradicate absolute poverty -- this could be one of the world's great success stories. Asian experience leads the world. At the same time, Asian governments want to learn from best practice in tackling the entrenched poverty in their midst. Asian governments increasingly want to work with us, as well as with each other, on a development programme that will continue to include aid but will also increasingly address issues such as trade, investment, population, migration and the environment.

This is why the UK Department for International Development, together with our partners the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, is hosting a major gathering of politicians, experts, private sector, civil society and development agencies. The Asia 2015: Promoting Growth, Ending Poverty conference meets next month to discuss development challenges facing Asia and to develop ideas on the way forward over next ten years. This is the start of a debate that will go far beyond the meeting next month - indeed, it's a debate that you may join now, online. It could be the start of one of the biggest changes we will see in our lifetime.

Hilary Benn is the Secretary of State for International Development, UK.