Report of the Committee on Site


NUMBER 037
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 2004




                           January 2016
The World Bank Group Archives Exhibit Series contains exhibits originally
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Archives’ website was transferred to a new platform in 2015, it was decided that
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on the World Bank’s external database, Documents & Reports.

These exhibits, authored by World Bank archivists, highlight key events,
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Report of the Committee on Site

The following is a selection from a
report by the Committee on Site
from the Inaugural Meeting of the
Board of Governors of the IBRD
held in Savannah, Georgia, March
8-18, 1946 in which the location of
the new World Bank headquarters
is determined. Read the full report
at the bottom of this exhibit as
reproduced in “Inaugural Meeting of        Inaugural Meeting of the Board of Governors
the Board of Governors of the                       Savannah, Georgia, 1946
International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development,
Selected Documents” (1946).

Under the Articles of Agreement, Article V, Section 9 (of the Bank), the question
was limited to the selection of a locality within the United States. The
metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C., and of New York, New York, were
advanced for consideration. There was a thorough discussion of the arguments
for and against both suggestions.

The following reasons for selecting New York rather than Washington, D.C. were
given:

The Bank as an international institution should not be associated with the capital
of any nation, and the staff and officials should be in an atmosphere conducive to
allegiance to the Bank. New York, in addition to being a financial and economic
world center, would afford a good opportunity for cooperation with the Social and
Economic Councils of the United Nations Organization. The selection of New
York would minimize the technical difficulties of operation; transportation facilities
would be better.

The following reasons for selecting Washington, D.C., rather than New York were
given:

The Bank, as an intergovernmental institution, should be free of any possible
influence from economic, financial, or commercial private interests. In recent
years there has been a shift from New York to Washington of international
financial policy making. The judgment of the government of the country in which
the Bank is to be located should be given substantial weight. Washington, D.C.,
affords a better opportunity for the members to communicate with the
representatives of their respective governments. In Washington the officers of the
Bank would have been ready access to data and material relating to the
economies of many countries.

After careful consideration of the argument for and against, the delegates
opposing the choice of Washington acquiesced in a recommendation by the
Committee to the Board that the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C., be
selected as a permanent site for the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development.