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time has come for all international development institutions to have clearly
defined roles to avoid overlapping of activities and so as to ensure the
activities of all institutions are complementary one to the other and not
competitive.
"The some-what haphazard emergence of these institutions since
the Second World War has meant that a not insignificant proportion of
available funds, expertise and experience is not being utilised to the
best advantage. Moreover, access to the limited resources of these
institutions appears to be determined on an accidental rather than a
fair and rational basis. Specifically, I would like to suggest that an
examination should be made of the possibility of the World Bank and the
several regional banks, as appropriate, accepting responsibility for
administering some of the development funds presently controlled by specialised
agencies. It would seem to be self evident that the totality of the overhead
costs of all development institutions is now such that substantial resources
could be released for productive investment purposes if there was a degree
of rationalisation of prosent arrangements. I think it would be helpful,
therefore, if the newly established International Commission on Development
looked into the present network of development and allied institutions
and examined their respective roles critically.
Protectionism
"My final point concerns the lurch to protectionism which has
become so alarmingly apparent in the last twelve months or so.
will undoubtedly slow down the growth rate of world trade in manufactures,
and generally. It will thus be a self-defeating process in the long run.
/Certainly