Announcement of the Bank Sending Mission to Brazil on October 11, 1949

150 :. INTERNATIONAL BANF FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND D~VELOPMENT Washington - ,- ADVANCE PRESS RELEASE For Release Morning Papers Tuesday, Outober 11, 1949 PRESS RELEASE NO. 150 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced today that it is sending a general econoinic and financial mission to Brazil. The group of four will arrive in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, October 15, and will remaitl in Brazj,l for from four to six weeks. Last J"anuary the International Bank made a loan of $75,000 1 000 to the Brazilian Trac·tion, L:i.ght & Power Company, Ltd., which was guaranteed by the Goverl'llllentQ Since then various interests, official and private, have discussed with the Bank the possibility of securing financial assistance for a number of edditional development projects in different parts of Brazil~ The Bank•e mission will study general economic and financial co~ditions in the country with a view to enabling the Bank to form a judgment as to ,the· amount of additional external debt Brazil can properly assume within the next few years, The mission will also consider what priority the various proposed development projects shol,lld receive, and will likewiee survey the Brazilian Government 8 s policies for promoting the develop:rnent of the country's economic resources. Although the mission will not investigate in detail any specifio .project, it will gather general data on the projects proposed for Bank financing. Richard H. De~uth, Assistant to the Vice President of the Bank, will head the mission. He will b~ accompanied by Dr. Harold W. Larsen and Newton B. Parker of the Economic Departmen~, and by Sidney P, Wheelock of the Loan Department. They will be joined in Brazil by Tracy Martin, independent ~ engineer, who has been in Braiil for several months making a survey for the Bank to determine the market for power which wo'Uld be developed by the proposed Paulo Afonso ~rdro-electric proj~ct on the Sao Francisco River.