Colombo Plan

Colombo Plan international economic organization created in a cooperative attempt to strengthen the economic and social development of the nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Officially the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in Asia and the Pacific, it came into force in 1951 as the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia. There are 24 members and one provisional member, Mongolia. The original formulators of the plan were a group of seven Commonwealth nations; presently Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States are the largest donors. Assistance is given in the form of educational and health aid, training programs, loans, food supplies, equipment, and technical aid; arrangements for assistance are made directly between a donor and a recipient country. Originally conceived as lasting for a period of six years, the Colombo Plan was extended several times until 1980, when it was extended indefinitely. The organization's headquarters are in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Colombo Plan International organization with headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, which seeks to promote the economic and social development in s and se Asia. Initiated by the Commonwealth of Nations (1951), it now includes 26 states including Canada, Japan, UK, and the USA. It fosters bilateral agreements providing various kinds of aid.

Colombo Plan Based on an Australian initiative at a meeting of Commonwealth ministers in Colombo in January 1950, the Plan was originally intended as a means by which richer Commonwealth countries, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, could assist the poorer members in south-east Asia. However, the Australian Prime Minister, Menzies, lobbied for US financial involvement by which he hoped to prevent Communism from spreading to the recipient nations, very much akin to the Marshall Plan. As a consequence, US financial support came to exceed that of any of the Commonwealth countries, and in turn non-Commonwealth countries such as South Korea were included in the list of recipient nations.