Announcement of Argentine Transport Study on September 30, 1960

WORLD • INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 1818 H STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON 25, D. C. TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 PRESS RELEASE NO. 655 SUBJECT: Argentine Transport Se~tenoer 30, 196o Study The World Bank today announced the appointment of Lieut. Gen. Thomas B. Larkin, U.S.A. (Ret.) as Technical Director of a comprehensive study of trans- portation to be undertaken in Argentina. The study is expected to take about 15 months a.nd will provide the basis for a long-term program for developing .Argentina's transportation network. The United Nations Special Fund is assisting the study with a grant of $475,000 to cover part of the foreign .• exchange costs involved; the Argentine Government is paying the remaining . external costs and all the local expenses, and to this end has appropriated 100 million pesos (about $1.2 million). At the request of the Special .Fund and the Government, the Bank is acting as Executing Agency for the study. Under an agreement recently concluded among the Government, the Special lt"\md and the Bank, a Transportation Planning Group is to be established in the Argentine Ministry of Public Works and Services. Its Chairman will be the Minister, Ing. Alberto R. Constantini, and General Larkin will direct its day-to-day work. The Planning Group will be composed of experts in economics, engineering and transport operations, with .Argentines and foreign nationals in about equal numbers. It will investigate :Argentina's present situation and long- •• range requirements with regard to all forms of surface transportation --  • - 2 - road, rail and water -- and prepare an integrated plan of investment and related measures for improvement and developme:o;t of the national transporta- tion system over a number of years. The basic studies and plan a.re expected. to be ready by about the end of 1961; but it is contemplated tha.t the Planning Group will continue, staffed wholly or largely by Argentine nationals, as a permanent agency of the Government. General Larkin, before his retirement in 1952, was Director of Logistics of the Department of the Army. He had served previously as Arrrry QUa.rtermaster- General, as commanding General, Services of Supply, in the North African Tb.eater during World War II, and in a variety of responsible posts in the Corps of Engineers. He is a graduate of Gonzaga. University and of t.he U.s. Military Academy, and completed courses at the Army Industrial College, the Command and General Staff School, the Naval war College.· t:nd the Arrrzy war Collegee Since his retirement from military service, General Larkin has resided in Paris as a senior member of the United states Mission to European • Regional Organizations. General Larkin will take up. his duties in Buenos Aires about October 1, at 'Which time the Transportation Planning Group will be formally established • •