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    "label": "\"History of the Technical Assistance Programs of the Marshall Plan and Successor Agencies, 1948-1961\"",
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    "title": "\"History of the Technical Assistance Programs of the Marshall Plan and Successor Agencies, 1948-1961\"",
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    "ocrText": "- 84 -\nchannels at work, the levels of foreign investment of a few score new plants would do little to expand national\nproduction and employment.\n8.35\nA number of factors in this decade contributed to holding back substantial flows of foreign\ninvestment. There was a general lack of knowledge of conditions relating to production potential in\ndeveloping countries. There were uncertainties about the dependability and availability of utilities, material\nsupplies, and labor. Tax and tariff liabilities were often complex. The many bureaucratic approvals necessary\nfor new investment were often time-consuming and therefore acted as deterrents. The comparative advantage\nof low labor costs were often outweighed by the above factors.\n8.36\nThe Marshall Plan successor agencies assembled a body of technical assistance measures in\nan attempt to remedy some of the above problems and incorporated them in an institution called a Foreign\nInvestment Promotion Center. This type of Center was supported by a range of U.S. technical assistance aids.\nThe concept of the Center was drawn from a variety of past successful foreign investment promotion activities\nof organizations ranging from those of Operation Bootstrap in Puerto Rico beginning in the 1940s⁸²/ to the\nInvestment Promotion Agencies of many Southern states in the U.S. set up to induce many industries in the\nNorth and East regions to move to the South. This body of experience covered several decades, continues\ntoday, and has indisputably proved its effectiveness.\n8.37\nIn many respects the Agencies and programs of Puerto Rico and the Southern U.S. States\nwere similar in the 1940s and the 1950s. They combined active promotion through offices in the U.S. and\nabroad which were outgoing and actively searched out potential investing companies. These agencies brought\nabout a legislated body of tax, facility, and service inducements to overcome hesitancy on the part of foreign\ninvestors and thus provide benefits to outweigh some of the risks of new investment.\n8.38\nThe Foreign Investment Promotion offices conducted solicitation and advertisements to invest,\nand to move plants or start new plants. Through the Promotion Center, tax relief or tax deferrals were\narranged for given periods. When necessary, the agencies subsidized plant construction, the training of local\nlabor, and most, important of all, simplifying and expediting all levels of governmental approvals. In short,\nthe Foreign Investment Promotion staff lent assistance to the incoming firm at all important stages from initial\nsurvey to production start up. In some cases lines of credit, and loans were made available from financial\ninstitutions which were associated with the Investment Promotion agencies. The Foreign Investment\nPromotion Center concept in the late 1950s thus incorporated the most successful operational and staff\nfeatures of these early programs.\n8.39\nMarshall Plan Technical Assistance was offered to interested countries who wished to establish\na Foreign Investment Promotion Center.83 Full organizational details, staffing plans, and operational\n82/\nWilliam H. Stead, Foments -- The Economic Development of Puerto Rico, 1942-1957, New York.\n83/\nICA, Regional Workshop Conference on Industrial Development, Taipei, 1959."
}