The dramatic fall in global poverty over the past two decades is the best news in the world today. For the first time ever, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty-now defined as living on less than $1.90 a day-is projected to fall below 10 percent this year, to 9.6 percent of the world's population. Unprecedented economic growth, especially in China, has allowed hundreds of millions of people to escape poverty.

But to effectively end extreme poverty by 2030-which is the goal of the World Bank Group and our 188 member countries-our aspirations must be higher still. Many tough decisions will have to be made before we can become the generation that ends extreme poverty.

The question we ask today is how can developing countries progress in the face of slow global growth, the end of the commodities super-cycle, pending interest rate hikes and capital flight from emerging markets? For the largely middle-income countries in East Asia and the Pacific, the challenge in this unfavorable global environment is to sustain rapid growth, improve social services and protect the vulnerable.