Introduction

The World Bank Group has recently announced the twin goal for sustainable development, “ending poverty and sharing prosperity” (World Bank 2014). This is inspired by the world's success in reaching the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty 5 years ahead of the 2015 deadline. The World Bank (2014, p. 160) reported that, in developing regions as a whole, the proportion of the population living on less than $1.25 a day fell by more than one half from 43 percent in 1990 to 17 percent in 2011. The major contributing factor to global poverty reduction is the rapid economic growth in East Asia, most notably in China. Worldwide in 2011, just over 1 billion people live on $1.25 a day, which is 14.5 percent of the world's population (World Bank, 2014, p.2). The new goal is to virtually eliminate extreme poverty by 2030 by reducing the current proportion of poor people from 14.5 percent to 3 percent.