Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia

Extract

The tenth annual report of the Consultative Committee of the Colombo Plan was prepared at the Committee's meeting in Kuala Lumpur in November 1961 and reviewed the experience of the Plan in the ten years since its inception. According to the report, for many countries in the area the evidence of their achievements in both the public and private sectors during the past ten years could be seen in a notable expansion of output. National income had grown almost continuously, particularly since 1953. Most of the countries of the area had recorded substantial gains in overall output as well as in important sectors. But in many cases rapid increases in population resulted in diminishing the measurement of gains on a per capita basis. Agricultural production—the mainstay of the area's economy—had significantly increased both in terms of total production and in terms of yield per unit of cultivated land. The area as a whole showed an increase in the index of agricultural output of about 12.5 percent; the average world increase during the same period was 15.5 percent. The production of rice, the staple food of the area, had increased by about 40 percent; and output of maize had registered a gain of over 30 percent.