ABSTRACT
The complex and uncertain changes in development strategies can be seen in several major periods in the history of development assistance. During the 1970s, changes in the policies of international organizations seeking economic growth with greater social equity marked a second identifiable period in the evolution of development theory. Governments in developing countries and international organizations expressed as much concern with the distribution of benefits as with the rate and pace of economic output. In Sri Lanka economic achievements always fell behind planned targets; decisions regularly departed from government guidelines. Governments had difficulty obtaining large amounts of foreign capital to finance ambitious industrialization plans and had linle success in mobilizing sufficient savings internally to achieve high rates of capital formation. Milton Friedman argued that the prescriptions for macroeconomic development planning were unlikely to be useful or appropriate in developing nations.
