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8 J. World Trade L. 316 (1974)
Pre-Investment

handle is hein.kluwer/jwt0008 and id is 332 raw text is: Pre-Investment A. F. EWING ECONOMISTS HAVE NOT PAID much attention to pre-investment studies and appear generally to have assumed that investors have more instantaneous knowledge and insight about profitable opportunities than is the case in the real world. After all, one of the assumptions underlying the concept of perfect competition is perfect knowledge. Singer is an exception, not only in his direct contributions to the work of the United Nations but also in his writing., The term pre-investment activity is given various shades of meaning. In its narrower sense it means the carrying out of all those specific studies required before seeking or committing finance for the execution of a project, whether in the agricultural, industrial or infrastructural sector. But it is also used in a wider sense to cover broader but still necessary surveys, e.g. of natural resources, which do not lead to immediate specific investment and indeed will not do so at all if the results are negative. Similarly, the setting up of institutions, training programmes and the provision of technical advice may in a still broader sense be regarded as pre-investment. The different meanings given to the term are partly the result of the range of activities carried out by the UNDP, the focal point of international assistance in this field, of whose contribution more will be said later. UNDP was established as a merger between two U.N. activities started earlier, one concerned with the provision of technical assistance and training projects, generally on a small scale, the U.N. Technical Assistance Administration; and the other specially designed to carry out See H. W. Singer, International Development, New York, 1964, ch. 2. It is also interesting to note a remark by Paul Hoffman, then the Administrator of the UNDP, in an introduction to this collection of Singer's papers, where he picks out as the first of what he considers to be the three most important of Singer's contributions: The crucial importance of undertaking preinvestment work prior to large scale investment. This article draws heavily on a chapter in a forthcoming book by the writer called Develop- ment Concepts in Practice. The views expressed should not be attributed to the United Nations Secretariat of which he is a former staff member. 316 Copyright © 2007 by Kluwer Law International. All rights reserved. No claim asserted to original government works.

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