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IINBBR&EN

The Hag\je ,October 12, 1954
S i j z e n l a a i 41
Dr A, Mitra,
Economie Division,
Ministry of Finance,
P- Block,
New Delhi

My dear Mitra,
Thank you so much for yours of September 12
which it was a great pleasure to receive. Be sure
that your letters are always very welBome, I feel
I may be useful for the problem of the underdeveloped
countries also here and may be even more so here for
the moment. You may have observed that the Netherlands delegation in the UN-assembly announced some
new initiative.
Thank you very much for your comments on the
performances so far obtained from the first FiveYear Plan. I think you are right in pointing out
that favourable crops may be accidental; on the
other hand one could hardly expect m^rch result
already after such a short period. Recently we had
some very interesting discussion here about the
type of investment that would seem to be the most
appropriate to underdeveloped countries and are
embarking upon studies on this subject. It was
especially questioned whether capital intensive
projects would be advisable and you will understand
that doubt was expressed. In this respect calculations
of the yield of different investment projects are
of course of great interest and I wonder whether the
Indian Administration is working on such calculations.
It was also very interesting tor ead about your
savings ratio. I agree that by itself the discovery that
that it may be 7/^ does nog change your situation,
I feel you are quite right in continuing implementation of the plan is the most important thing to be
done, I should wish that this could be in some way
connected up.with the creation of a group of young
economists and other technicians to stren^hen this
insight, and at the same tine to educate its members
ant others in this discussion.
The 1970 Plan of the Dutch Planning Bureau has
recently been brought into repair since we upon closer
consideration doubted its validity, I am afraid therefore that it will take a bit longer before an English
edition can be made.
Thank you for giving me professor G-oodwin's
regards and please, return them to him.
All of us are very well and want to greet you
very cordially.
Yours as ever.