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This article examines the results of development planning in developing countries. For all the differences in underlying conditions, in national goals and ideologies and in degrees of technical sophistication, development planning everywhere follows much the same pattern. A typical development plan consists of articulation of over-all growth targets in terms of plan-end output levels or plan-period productive capacities by sector or by product group. The development plan is a technocratic conception of a feasible program for the fulfillment of policy-makers' goals. The critique of the efficiency of private enterprise centers on the inability or the unwillingness of private business to seize potentially profitable business opportunities. One of the reasons for the alleged failure is the inadequacy of market signals, which reflect current scarcities but fail to indicate future opportunities in the rapidly evolving environment of the developing world. The experience of several countries, including Iran and Pakistan, shows how powerfully policy can affect the direction of investment.