Criteria for the Formulation of an Adequate Approach in Aiding the Development of Underdeveloped Areas

Extract

The two papers to which we have just listened throw a significant light upon the problem of developing underdeveloped areas. Mr. Tayyeb presented some of the material aspects of the conditions encountered in the attempt to integrate industrial activity with the still predominantly agricultural economies of South Asia, and Dr. Keenleyside throughout his thorough description of the problems of administering technical aid rightly discouraged thought that technical assistance amounts to very much more than a reflection of the difficulties which it is its aim to help solve. In my own remarks I should like to combine the two different aspects presented in the papers, namely, the problems of the aid-receiving countries or areas and the problems of the aid-giving nations, in discussing some of the structural characteristics of the economies involved. My aim is to elicit from the material at hand, or even to read into it, some criteria necessary for the formulation of adequate policies in aiding underdéveloped countries. Economic theory, in this context, will be defined as the means by which we establish relationships between data with the aim of understanding the structure and motion of the whole economy in a manner that makes possible the formulation of policy. The institutional flavour will be unmistakable.

Mr. Tayyeb has reminded us of some of the prominent features of South Asia. He suggested that the poverty and degradation characteristic of this area cannot be explained by analysing them solely in terms of the state of subjugation of the Asiatic people, nor solely in terms of European exploitation. “Truth,” he said, “is to be found somewhere between.” The word “between,” I take it, suggests a relationship.