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Blueprints for Nations. From the start, World Banker Black discovered that his job was far bigger than merely making loans. Some applicants had no clear idea of what they wanted the loan for. One early visitor informed Black that his country needed about $250 million. When asked how the money was to be used, he admitted that he had no particular plans. "We just wanted to get some of the bank's money before it was all gone," he explained. Those who did have specific projects rarely bothered to work out the economic details. Says Black: "It came as something of a surprise to learn that the tough problem wasn't going to be to raise the money for good projects. The tough problem was going to be to find projects good enough to warrant our lending."
For each project, teams of World Bank experts checked the plan to make sure it was workable. Black also found it increasingly valuable to take a look at the overall economy of a prospective borrower, gradually put the bank into the business of broad development planning. In 1949 the government of Colombia asked the bank for a team of experts to help work out a countrywide development program. A dozen specialists spent the better part of a year studying Colombia's basic problems, turned in a volume that became Colombia's charter for development, advising on how to attract foreign capital, how to encourage investment by Colombia's own citizens. The government followed it so carefully that Colombia now has ten World Bank loans totaling $94 million and is rapidly expanding.
To date, 14 such general missions have gone out to member countries. And to insure that the reports are not merely filed and forgotten, the Bank insists that the country asking such help pay half the cost of the mission. In several cases, the bank has actually taken a hand in helping run a member nation's economy. At Nicaragua's request, the World Bank stationed two of its experts in the capital for a year to advise Dictator Anastasio Somoza, now keeps one man on duty permanently.
Actually, says Black, "trained people are needed more than money in underdeveloped countries." To supply the need, the bank currently runs a year-long course for junior-rank career officials, training them in such subjects as balance of payments, national-income accounting, project preparation, etc. Black has also set up a school for senior governmental officials. Among his students last week: Colombia's national-planning director, the financial adviser of Pakistan, the economic director for Egypt's finance ministry.
Conditions & Creditors. With all its fine-tooth preparation, the World Bank purposely takes a long time to negotiate a project, and follows it through to the final rivet. "We are accused of imposing a lot of conditions," says Black. "That is absolutely true. We are proud of it." In Thailand, for example, the bank agreed to finance modernization of the government-owned railway system only on condition that it be set up as an autonomous agency, free from any government interference.