Word: ldcs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Government leaders and a few private businessmen in the industrial lands are beginning to recognize that growth in the LDCs offers a way out of this box. Economic advance in the poor countries, so goes the argument, would open markets for steel, chemicals and other products now glutting the North, increase production and employment in the U.S., Europe and Japan-and do all that at little inflationary price...
Peter G. Peterson, chairman of the investment banking firm of Lehman Bros. Kuhn Loeb, points out that LDCs already receive more than one-third of U.S. exports, including more than 40% of foreign sales of commercial aircraft and electrical machinery. Even the industrializing LDCs that are competing effectively with Northern factories in such products as clothing and shoes, he asserts, buy more from the rich nations than they sell to them. He endorses much more aid to LDCs because he considers them to be potentially "important engines of less inflationary growth for the developed countries...
There are a few signs that the rich nations are becoming more interested in aiding LDCs. The West German government is preparing some actions to announce at next month's economic summit meeting, in Bonn, of the seven biggest industrial powers. Included: cancellation of debts owed to West Germany by some of the poorest countries. Japan promises to increase its foreign aid to $2.2 billion by next year, double the 1976 figure, though still a pittance in comparison with the nation's $29.6 billion in monetary reserves...
...little chance that these small steps will lead to any sustained effort by the rich nations to help the poor. Says U.S. Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal: "In view of our domestic problems, no substantial increase in assistance seems feasible at present." Many Western statesmen contend that the LDCs lack the infrastructure (roads, ports, dams, railways), political organization and expertise to use much more aid than they are now getting. Says West German Economics Minister Count Otto Lambsdorff: "I do not believe that a kind of Marshall Plan for the Third World-which today would have to be shouldered jointly...
...version of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II may well be the most workable solution. Only such a plan could overcome the widespread feeling among voters that much aid to LDCs is wasted because it consists of piecemeal efforts by the givers to finance uncoordinated projects. It is often forgotten that the Marshall Plan involved far more than the mere ladling out of money: it committed the U.S. to aid countries that drew up detailed and effective plans to use the cash and goods for rebuilding. This coordinated planning is vital-especially since the task...