Colombo Plan

Colombo Plan (for Cooperative Economic and Social  Development in Asia and the Pacific)
Flag
Current (blue) and former (yellow) members of the Colombo Plan.
Headquarters	Colombo, Sri Lanka
Official languages	English
Type	Economic forum
Member countries	Current (27)  Afghanistan  Australia  Bangladesh  Bhutan  Brunei  Fiji  India  Indonesia  Iran  Japan  Laos  Malaysia  Maldives  Mongolia  Myanmar     Nepal  New Zealand  Pakistan  Papua New Guinea  Philippines  Saudi Arabia  Singapore  South Korea  Sri Lanka  Thailand  United States  Vietnam Former (4)  Cambodia  Canada  South Vietnam  United Kingdom
Leaders
• Secretary-General	Kinley Dorji
Establishment
• Establishmenta	28 November 1950
• Commencement	1 July 1951
Website http://www.colombo-plan.org/
As the "Colombo Plan for Co-operative Economic Development in South and South-East Asia".

The Colombo Plan is a regional organisation that embodies the concept of collective intergovernmental effort to strengthen economic and social development of member countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The primary focus of all Colombo Plan activities is on human resources development.

In the Spring 1949, the Indian Ambassador to China, Kavalam Madhava Panikkar, proposed a multilateral fund to the British and Australian ambassadors, in order to help the states of southeast Asia to battle communist movements in their countries. The United States was to be by far the largest contributor of aid to the organisation.

Formally, the organisation was born out of a Commonwealth Conference of Foreign Ministers, held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in January 1950. At this meeting, a plan was established to provide a framework within which international cooperation efforts could be promoted to raise the standards of people in the region. Originally conceived as lasting for a period of six years, the Colombo Plan was extended several times until 1980, when it was extended indefinitely. Initially it was called the "Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia". It has grown from a group of seven Commonwealth nations - Australia, Britain, Canada, Ceylon, India, New Zealand and Pakistan - into an international governmental organisation of 27, including non-Commonwealth countries. When it adopted a new constitution in 1977, its name was changed to "The Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific" to reflect the expanded composition of its enhanced membership and the scope of its activities.

In the early years, Colombo Plan assistance from developed to developing countries comprised both transfer of physical capital and technology as well as a strong component of skills development. Hence, while infrastructure by way of airports, roads, railways, dams, hospitals, plant fertiliser, cement factories, universities and steel mills were constructed in member countries through Colombo Plan assistance, a large number of people were simultaneously trained to manage such infrastructure and the growing economies.

The Colombo Plan is not intended as an integrated master plan to which national plans were expected to conform. It is, instead, a framework for bi-lateral arrangements involving foreign aid and technical assistance for the economic and social development of the region.