ABSTRACT
When approaching a single region, development planners find it difficult to elaborate a strategy which is both change-oriented and politically feasible. Three factors at the national level are especially important when dealing with regional development: the country's overall economic background, its development policies and priorities and the patterns of implementation as these are indicators of the will and determination as well as the capability of inducing change. At the national level, Bolivia, Colombia and Chile were the first countries to formulate development plans. Since the conference at Punta del Este in 1961, all the Latin American countries have prepared development plans of varying scopes and characteristics, however, they all have in common a declarative rather than operational basis. On the whole, regional developmental planning is conducted under conditions of uncertainty, and even of anomie, primarily in the sense that there is no consistent, long-range development policy, orientation and infrastructure.
