Statement by the President in Response to Report of the Inter-American Committee on the Alliance for Progress.

THE Inter-American Committee on the Alliance for Progress--called CIAP from the Spanish initials--has completed the first cycle of its work. In the year since it was created it has reviewed the development efforts of each of the countries of Latin America under the alliance. Its report measures both the internal resources and efforts and the foreign assistance which, together, must support these development efforts.

This report will be forwarded to the Lima meeting of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council which begins on November 30. CIAP's report, and the meetings of the experts and ministerial representatives of all the nations of the Inter-American system at Lima, suggest an appropriate opportunity for me to renew our support of the Alliance for Progress.

Firm and continued support for the principles of the Charter of Punta del Este is the central theme of all we do in the hemisphere. The United States considers itself a partner with the peoples of Latin America. Theirs is a struggle to create a new future, a better way of life, in which each human being of the hemisphere may reach his own full potential. We are proud to say that we will continue to play our part by support and participation in the work of the CIAP.

We are encouraged in this by developments in the hemisphere during the last year.

All the problems of the Alliance for Progress have not of course been solved in the rapid unfolding of events in 1964. Obstacles are still before us--obstacles which all nations of the hemisphere must bend their efforts to overcome.

There must be peaceful changes in the countryside, in order to bring full social justice to the poor who work the lands, to increase the production of food and fiber to feed the rapidly growing population of Latin America and expand markets for the burgeoning industries of the hemisphere.

There must be improved revenue systems in the administration of taxes. Nations afflicted by the disease of inflation must carry forward their programs to bring stability to their currencies.

We must continue and improve planning efforts so that scarce public resources available for investment and development can be directed to the needs of highest priority and in order that the changes of national policy essential to growth be identified and instituted. The efforts and will of all the peoples of America in these and other fields--labor, health, housing and urban planning, cooperatives, community development, national budgeting, water and sewerage, education, transportation, public administration-can build the new hemisphere toward which we all aspire.

We must release the energies and resources of the private sector for growth through cooperatives, through democratic, free trade unions, through community organizations and citizen groups and private business and industry. Development and growth are not a matter solely of governments. The energies of all the people must contribute.

There must be a full effort to expand the range of economic opportunities within Latin America, by creating and strengthening national markets in each nation and by further progress under the Central America Common Market and the Latin America Free Trade Area. At the same time, all the nations of the free world trading community--including the United States--must make special efforts to improve the conditions of international trade.

There is a quickened interest by the nations of Europe, by Japan and by Canada, in Latin America. We look forward to a greater and more closely coordinated participation by all members of the industrialized free world in the economic, social, and political development efforts of Latin America.

I congratulate the efforts of Dr. Carlos Sanz de Santamaria and the members of CIAP. I have on a number of occasions met with him, and from time to time, with the ambassadors of our alliance partner nations and the members of CIAP. As all officials of our Government know, and as I have said often in the past, I regard the work of the CIAP as deserving of our sincere support.