Economics Team Gets Ford Grant To Aid Greece

The Harvard Development Advisory Service has received a $530,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to send economic advisors to Greece over the next two years.

Under the terms of the grant, five specialists will go to Athens later this year, Dr. Gustav Papaneck, acting director of the Harvard Development Advisory Service, said yesterday.

The specialists will both advise Greek economists on development, and train them in more up to date methods of planning and research, Papaneck said. They will work in cooperation with the Greek Center for Planning and Economics Research.

Harvard currently advises Argentina, Colombia, Libya, Malaysia, and Pakistan on economic development, but this is the first time any American university has been asked to help plan the economic development of Greece, Papaneck added.

Harvard will administer the grant and direct the project, Papaneck said, but not all of the economists will come from Harvard.

As advisors, the specialists will help the Greek government formulate economic policy in such areas as tax structure, consumer prices, and foreign capital investment. They will also supervise research on industrial development and agricultural planning, and study the economic problems of Greece's possible entry into the European Common Market, Papaneck explained.

The grant also provides scholarship funds to send Greek students to the United States for further economic training. Papaneck added that the scholarship would be both to Harvard and other American universities.