The Colombo Plan is a regional intergovernmental organization that began operations on 1 July 1951. The organization was conceived at an international conference, The Commonwealth Conference on Foreign Affairs held in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in January 1950, and was attended by the finance ministers of Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ceylon, Pakistan and New Zealand, and the prime ministers of Ceylon and India. Membership has expanded significantly over the years to the current 28 governments.

The primary focus of its work is on the development of human resources in the south and southeast regions of Asia. Aid to education 1950 to 1983 came to $72 billion, of which $41 billion came from the United States. United States withdrew from the Colombo Plan in January 2026.

History

In the winter of 1949/1950, the United States, United Kingdom and other Commonwealth members discussed ideas related to economic development plans in South and Southeast Asia. The key meeting for establishing the Colombo Plan was held in Colombo, Ceylon in January 1950 at the Commonwealth Conference on Foreign Affairs.

Programmes

The Colombo Plan has four programmes:

  • Drug Advisory Programme (DAP, estd: 1973)
  • Gender Affairs Programme (GAP, estd: 2014)
  • Programme for Environment & Climate Change (ENV, estd: 2016)
  • Capacity Building Programme (CBP)

Past Programmes

  • Long-Term Scholarships Programme (LTSP, estd: 1951)
  • Programme for Private Sector Development (PPSD, estd: 1995)
  • Programme for Public Administration & Environment (PPA, estd: 1995)

The Plan now

Over the years, while adhering to the concept of human resource development and South-South Cooperation in addressing issues of economic and social development, the programme content of the Colombo Plan has been changing to take account of the needs of member countries in a fast changing world economic environment. In the early years, the training programmes were more of a long-term nature, while recent programmes have been focusing on providing advanced skills and experience sharing aimed at arriving at the best practices in different fields of economic and social activities as a means of good policy making and governance. The current programmes of the Colombo Plan are in the areas of public policy formulation in an environment of globalisation and market economy, private sector development as a prime mover for growth, drug use and dependence prevention and treatment in member countries and addressing gender issues. The Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Education located in Manila also provides skill development opportunities for technicians in middle level.

In her 2010 speech, Dato' Patricia Yoon-Moi Chia states: "The current Colombo Plan looks very different since our restructuring and revitalisation in 1995. As we continue to build upon our past successes, the new Colombo Plan uses cooperation among developing member countries or South-south Cooperation between the developed member countries and developing member countries, to underpin all our activities. Since our restructuring in 1995, we have now provided 16,082 scholarships to 23 member countries for both long-term and short-term training programmes."

  • Pehin Sri Adenan Bin Haji Satem (Malaysia), former Chief Minister of Sarawak
  • Ananda Krishnan, Malaysian-Tamil businessman

Present members

The Colombo Plan currently has 27 members.

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| 1963

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| 1951

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| 1972

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| 1962

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| 2008

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| 2021

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| 1972

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| 1951

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| 1953

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| 1966

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| 1954

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| 1962

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| 1957

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| 1963

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| 2004

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| 1952

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| 1952

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| 1951

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| 1951

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| 1973

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| 1954

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| 2012

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| 1966

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| 1951

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| 1954

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| 2004

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Past members

There have been four past members of the Colombo Plan including two founding members in 1950, Canada and the United Kingdom. South Vietnam and Cambodia joined together in 1951. On 2 Jul 1976 South Vietnam was succeeded by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam which withdrew in 1978. Vietnam was a provisional member from 5 Nov 2001 to 18 Nov 2003 until it was accepted as a full member in 2004.

On 7 January 2026, President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of United States from 66 international organisations including the Colombo Plan.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Member economy

! Date of accession

! Date of deposition

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| 1950

| 1992

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| 1950

| 1991

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| 1951

| 1975

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| 1951

| 1975

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|1957

|1979

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|1962

|1964

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|1962

|1964

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|1951

|2026

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See also

  • Colombo Plan Staff College

References

Further reading

  • Auletta, Alex. "A retrospective view of the Colombo Plan: Government policy, departmental administration and overseas students." Journal of higher education policy and management 22.1 (2000): 47–58.
  • Lowe, David. "The Colombo Plan and 'soft' regionalism in the Asia-Pacific: Australian and New Zealand cultural diplomacy in the 1950s and 1960s" (Alfred Deakin Research Institute, 2010) online.
  • International Organisations – The Colombo Plan
  • The Story of The Colombo Plan - Resource Book 2012