HC Deb 02 July 1951 vol 489 cc191-2W
107. Mr. Rankin

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress is being made in implementing the Colombo Plan.

Mr. Gaitskell

As hon. Members will be aware the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in South and South-East Asia was first conceived last year, and a report bringing together the individual development programmes of Commonwealth countries in the area was prepared by the Consultative Committee and published in November. The official starting date of the Plan was yesterday, 1st July, and I took the opportunity afforded to send a message of encouragement and good will to my colleagues on the Consultative Committee. Copies of my message and of the replies so far received, which give some indication of the progress made by the various countries, are available to Members in the Library of the House.

A great deal has been done in the past few months to prepare the way for the execution of the programmes embodied in the Plan. Despite the difficulties which re-armament and its consequent shortages are causing, the spirit of continued co-operation which marked the inception of the Plan has not diminished. The United States Government, which has already given concrete evidence of its intention to assist in the common effort, has joined the Consultative Committee, as also have the Governments of Viet Nam and Laos. The International Bank has associated itself with our work. Details of the form of continuing consultation have been worked out. The technical co-operation scheme is making good progress and the supplying countries have indicated the scale of their contributions. Further, there is little doubt that the countries in the area will themselves be able to finance a substantially higher proportion of the programmes than seemed possible last year.

A source of particular encouragement has been the way in which the Governments concerned have been pressing forward with those parts of their development programmes that were already in hand or were ready to start. I should like to take this opportunity of reaffirming the United Kingdom Government's determination to support this great enterprise to the maximum extent our resources allow.