From the birth of Pakistan, the central government saw itself as devoted to development. It assumed an interventionist role, but the funds it released were unimpressive. In the early 1950s the Cold War had made government-to-government aid a useful geopolitical tool, and there was a strong belief among experts that aid would accelerate economic growth. The Pakistan elite became heavily aid-dependent. In East Pakistan the Comilla model of cooperatives became important, as did the creation of a hydroelectric dam project in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.