UN General Assembly
1959

157. The problem of financing economic development in the under-developed countries is also receiving the attention of several international financial organs, existing and contemplated. First, there is IBRD, whose capital was doubled recently. This institution finances only the direct foreign exchange cost of development projects and makes loans directly to Governments, and where Governments offers a guarantee, to private industry as well. Projects must be strictly bankable, however, in order to qualify for loan assistance. This is as it should be. Second, there is the more recently established International Finance Corporation which, however, finances only projects run by private enterprises and again, rightly, on a strictly bankable basis. The Corporation, unlike IBRD, finances both the foreign exchange and the domestic cost of a private project. Third, the United Nations, only last year, established the Special Fund, the object of which is to finance, as an official introductory pamphlet aptly describes, the cost of bringing interesting ideas to bankable shape. Finally, there remains the projected international development association, approved at the annual session of IBRD which has just concluded. The principal aim of this institution is to promote, by financing sound projects of high priority, the economic development of less developed member countries whose needs cannot be adequately met under IBRD's lending programmes.