Statement by the President on the Inter-American Development Bank.

I MET THIS MORNING with Dr. Felipe Herrera, President of the Inter-American Development Bank, and Robert Cutler, the United States Director. We discussed the role of the Bank in helping to carry out the Alliance for Progress. Dr. Herrera informed me of the Bank's current programs as well as the policies that will guide its future activities.

I am convinced that the Inter-American Bank will play a vital role in the development of the hemisphere. It certainly will be one of the major instruments of our own effort; and the Latin American nations themselves have already indicated their willingness to use the Bank as a principal force in the implementation of the Alliance for Progress. Thus this liberal and progressive institution guided, as it is, by men with a deep understanding of the problems of Latin America can be of major assistance in fulfilling the hemisphere's desire for social change and economic progress.