Consultative Committee on Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia

The fifth meeting of the Consultative Committee on Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia was held in New Delhi from October 13 to 17, 1953, under the chairmanship of Sir Chintaman Deshmukh, Indian Minister of Finance. The meeting was attended by delegations from Australia, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, Ceylon, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Viet Nam. A communique issued at the end of the meeting stated that the main purpose of the session was to review progress under the Colombo Plan during 1952–1953, including the achievements of countries in south and southeast Asia in their development programs. The Committee recognized the desirability of stimulating increased understanding of, and interest in, the Colombo Plan and its aims and objectives. It accepted a proposal for the establishment of a small information unit in Colombo; this unit was to collect information relating to the Colombo Plan, arrange for distribution of this information to all member governments, and serve as a central pool of information which would be available to the press and the public. At its final meeting the Committee unanimously adopted a progress report, on which preliminary work had been done by officials of the participating governments in New Delhi from September 28 to October 8.