The function of the Bank is to aid and encourage international investment through the customary private
channels. Its appropriate sphere of activity is to assist private investors in meeting the needs of an
expanding world economy. In the immediate postwar years capital will be urgently required for
reconversion to peacetime production, for the reconstruction of destroyed areas, and for the
development of economically backward regions. The revival of international long-term lending on
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adequate scale is essential to the attainment of a high level of world trade without which wo[r]ld
prosperity is impossible.