811.516 Export Import Bank/4–146
The Ambassador in Colombia ( Wiley ) to the Secretary of State
No. 1560
[Received April 15.]
Sir: I have the honor to report details of a conference held Friday morning between Mr. Gaston, Vice Chairman, and Mr. Ness, Chief Economist, of the Export Import Bank, and Dr. Durana Camacho, head of the Instituto de Fomento Industrial, at which the undersigned was also in attendance.
Mr. Gaston asked Dr. Durana to explain the functions of the Instituto, which he did by referring to the basic laws under which the Instituto was formed and which authorize it to engage in the development of a number of specified industries, as well as other unspecified industries where private initiative has not been effective. Dr. Durana described the difference between the Instituto and the Caja de Credito Agrario, Industrial y Minero, saying that the former was interested exclusively in industrial development and processing, whereas, the latter was a lending agency as well as an importer and distributor of farm equipment and supplies.
Dr. Durana said that the main difficulty in the Instituto is an inadequacy of capital as it is at present operating with only 10,000,000 pesos, most of which is already invested. He proposed the possibility of opening a general credit for the Instituto which might be utilized for various of its pending projects, subject to prior submission to and approval of the Export Import Bank. Mr. Gaston said in reply that the present policy of the Bank is not to extend general credits of this kind and that it is now thought more practical to consider and extend special credits for individual projects. Both Mr. Gaston and Mr. Ness [Page 675] expressed the willingness of the Bank to consider earnestly any projects which might be presented to it by the Instituto.
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Respectfully yours,
Commercial Attaché