Series - East Asia and Pacific Regional Vice Presidency, China Division records

Identity area

Reference code

WB IBRD/IDA WB_IBRD/IDA_121-01

Title

East Asia and Pacific Regional Vice Presidency, China Division records

Date(s)

  • 1980 - 1991 (predominant 1980 - 1985) (Creation)

Level of description

Series

Extent and medium

0.42 linear feet of textual records; 21 photographs

Context area

Name of creator

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Series consists of records related to Wood's work in the China Division of the East Asia and Pacific Regional Vice Presidency (EAPVP) in which he worked from 1980 to 1985. Records primarily consist of hand-written notes taken by Wood during three separate trips to China.

Records relate to Wood's travel to China undertaken between October and December 1980 in support of the preparation of the World Bank publication China: Socialist Economic Development (1981). The nine-volume report was the Bank's first report on the Chinese economy. Wood served as the publication's principal economist. Records include notes Woods created during his attendance at two rounds of meetings in Beijing, and field notes from travel to Gansu province and Sichuan province. Meeting and field notes are divided into three sections reflecting these engagements. Photos related to the mission are also included, as are lists ofofficials met with by Wood's mission team and correspondence from 1991 between Wood and Zhu Fu Lin, a contact he made during the 1980 mission.

Records relating to Wood's mission to China in July 1982 to participate in the Moganshan conference on economic reform in China are included. The conference was organized by the World Bank and China's Price Research Centre, whose aim was dialogue between East European and Chinese economists. The entire engagement consisted of: a meeting of World Bank and East European participants on July 5, 1982 at Wolfson College, Oxford, England; an introductory meeting on July 9, 1982 with Chinese counterparts in Beijing; the conference at a resort on Mo Gan mountain in Zhejiang province from July 11-16, 1982; visits to Chinese cities (Wood and his team visited Shanghai and Chongqing between July 18-26, 1982); and final plenary meetings in Beijing on July 27-29, 1982. Records relating to the conference consist of: Terms of Reference; handwritten meeting and field notes; and photos.

Also included are records relating to Wood's travel to China in 1983, 1984, and 1985 for preparation of the World Bank report China: Long-Term Issues and Options (1985), for which Wood served as deputy mission chief and coordinator of the main report. Records are divided into six parts: a report planning note, authored by Wood, dated February 16, 1983; notes from meetings held in Beijing from September 13-19, 1983, to discuss planning of the report; notes on system reform from February and April-May 1984 missions; notes from February 13-23, 1984 mission to Beijing and Wuhan; notes from April-May 1984 mission to Beijing, Jiangsu, and Gansu; and notes from March 1985 mission during which a draft version of the report was discussed and high-level meetings with Chinese officials were held. Supplementary folders contain photos from the mission and documents related to the 1985 report, consisting of contact lists and a memo on income distribution data given to the economic mission.

Records in this series also relate to World Bank support for China's investment decisions, project planning, and shadow pricing. Records dating from 1981 to 1984 include: Bank memoranda on these topics; handwritten notes from relevant meetings and missions; notes relating to the preparation of a project appraisal manual for the China Investment Bank (CIB) and the finalized CIB appraisal manual titled "Appraisal Manual for Industrial Credit Projects" dated March 1983; and two papers titled "Economic Evaluation of Investment Projects: Possibilities and Problems of Applying Western Methods in China" (authored by Wood) and "Economic Analysis of Aluminum Milling in Shanghai" (authored by Wood and Shinji Ichishima). A photo from November 1981 from a Beijing meeting with the CIB manual team is also included.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

The order of the records when transferred to the custody of the World Bank Group Archives has been maintained. Wood notes in his inventory that in a few cases, pages from his notebooks were grouped by him according to topic or source of information.

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Records are subject to the World Bank Access to Information Policy.

Conditions governing reproduction

Records are subject to the Copyright Policy of the World Bank Group.

Language of material

  • Chinese
  • English

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

An inventory list is available here.

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

  • See Records of Individual Staff Members - Moeen Qureshi files - Subject files WB IBRD/IDA STAFF-26-01 for records related to World Bank-China relations during this period.

Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Access points

Subject access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Internal World Bank Group Archives rules based on ISAD(G).

Disclosure status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

9 July 2024

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area