International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Extract

The seventh annual report of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to the Board of Governors, covering the period July 1, 1951 to June 30, 1952, was transmitted by the President of the Bank (Black) to the Board on September 3, 1952. During the fiscal year reviewed in the report, the Bank continued to help its members to draw up long-term programs of economic development, which were designed to raise the level of productivity and to increase the standard of living through the dispatch of general survey missions, primarily, and through the appointment of a number of specialized missions to study specific development problems in member countries. Although it was considered too early to attempt any general appraisal of the impact of the technical assistance program, the Bank reported its encouragement with evidence that the work done by the survey missions was achieving results in most countries to which they had been sent. The Bank also indicated that survey missions could often have the effect of changing the attitude of the country toward development problems.