THE COLOMBO PLAN

ments of outstanding requirements of trained men, whom they needed to carry on the work of development already in hand. Ceylon, for example, asked if it could be assisted to fill outstanding vacancies for trained men of various types including draftsmen, mechanical engineers, experts for medical and social schemes, irrigation engineers and expert industrial advisers. Some assistance to meet these demands has been given. Certain Commonwealth Governments have decided that it would be desirable to set up special units to receive requests for technical assistance and find ways and means of meeting them within their own countries. In the short period while this work has gone forward on an ad hoc basis, it has been found that the close touch which can be maintained by a body working in the area has much to commend it and is appreciated by the Governments who are seeking assistance. The benefits of these arrangements should increase as the permanent organisation grows in experience. 18. The present acute shortage of trained men in the countries of South and South-East Asia is an inevitable result of the endeavours being made to break with traditional methods and to introduce new techniques for using the resources of nature. The shortage has been aggravated both by general changes in conditions of recruitment and service since 1950, and by the resolute efforts now being made to increase the rate of economic development. The Governments of the countries in the area are making every effort to train their own people, by developing their own training facilities, and, with the co-operation of other Governments, by sending students overseas, and by recruiting experts from abroad. The problem can only be solved if countries in the area and overseas, acting individually and collectively, determine to match the size and urgency of the needs by their efforts to meet them. The Council for Technical Co-operation and the United Nations and its Agencies, acting in close consultation, can fulfil their respective and complementary functions of seeing that the available resources of technical man-power are used to greatest effect in carrying forward with increasing momentum the plans which the countries of South and South-East Asia have prepared for their economic and social betterment. CHAPTER X THE NEED FOR CAPITAL 1. The shortage of capital is the main limitation on the execution of the development programmes described in this Report. This arises simply from the poverty of the area. Its productivity and national income per head are so low that the tax structure is inevitably narrow and the taxable capacity inadequate ; the flow of savings is insufficient, for the great mass of the people have no margin above subsistence level. Consequently there are very limited resources with which to finance the capital expenditure required for development. In India, for example, total home-financed investment is now about 2\ per cent, of the national income ; in some advanced countries this figure runs above 20 per cent., and in most advanced countries it is as much as five times the Indian figure. 2. The present situation is in the nature of a vicious circle. Economic development cannot proceed because the rate of saving is inadequate ; saving does not take place because there is insufficient development. The problem in South and South-East Asia is to find means of remedying this shortage

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