for their achievements at the national level. emphasis upon knowledge sharing and awareness building on the nexus between social enterprise and social impact can make a significant contribution towards promoting a more effective and efficient process to encourage social enterprises across sri lanka. today, you are gathered here to deliberate on current trends, challenges and opportunities in building a social enterprise ecosystem and to help social enterprises and smes to scale up and create social impact, under the timely theme of “ think social - produce social - buy social ”. i believe this conference would be an effective pathway, particularly for emerging and prospective entrepreneurs to explore new markets for social goods and services and also an opportunity to share knowledge on successful social ventures at both local and global levels. you are all aware that maintaining a stable macroeconomic environment through economic and price stability and financial system stability are the core objectives of the central bank. promoting regional development is one of the agency functions of the central bank. promoting social enterprises is therefore, associated with the broader objectives of the central bank. in that context, the central bank, on behalf of the government, has a mandate for targeted lending to the microfinance, sme and agriculture sectors, as well as youth and women. in implementing this mandate, the central bank has been facilitating and implementing refinance schemes, interest subsidy schemes and credit guarantee schemes targeting the msmes. in addition, the central bank has embarked upon developing a national financial inclusion strategy ( nfis ), to introduce an evidence - based, prioritized, better resourced, and more comprehensive approach to expanding access to financial services. this would be an essential policy tool that will coordinate and implement cross - cutting actions and reforms, to increase financial inclusion in the country. with this national level strategy, it is expected to bring - in under - served segments of the society to the formal financial sector. further, the central bank has been conducting awareness programs on financial literacy and financial management as well as capacity building programs covering entrepreneurship and skills development for the needy segments of the population, with special focus on youth and grass root level entrepreneurs. furthermore, the central bank is attaching priority to improving payments and settlement systems and encouraging the use of electronic and mobile payment systems, with the objective of increasing financial inclusion through reducing transaction costs with the advance of technology. in addition, through the sme national policy framework, the government has also set out the policy direction, the challenges to be addressed and the intervention strategies to be pursued to achieve regional balance and resource efficiency in developing

oil intensity in many countries and more credible monetary policy frameworks. however, oil and food prices have been the driving forces of recent inflation developments in south africa and pose the major upside risks to inflation both here and abroad. monetary responses to terms - of - trade shocks such as oil price increases are not straightforward and depend in part on the magnitude and duration of these shocks. in essence, the issue boils down to distinguishing between permanent and transitory changes in these prices, and how the first - and second - round effects are likely to influence future inflation outcomes. in general, central banks are not likely to change monetary policy in response to commodity price fluctuations. monetary policy should address the risks emanating from possible second - round effects, i. e. adjustments in expectations triggered by movements in commodity prices which may exert an impact on the inflation process. 7. conclusion not surprisingly, in our uncertain world, there are conflicting views on the outlook for commodity prices. some believe that commodity prices will fall back to their long - term declining trend. others however, foresee a sustained boom, or at worst a levelling off at higher levels, given the ongoing industrialisation in china and other emerging - market countries. whatever the future course of commodity prices, there is little doubt that it will have an impact on our economy. in essence, the policy responses will depend on the macroeconomic impact of the price movements. in this regard, the effect of commodity price movements on inter alia the trade balance, aggregate demand, exchange rate and fiscal developments are of paramount importance. from a monetary policy perspective, our key concern is the possible impact on inflation. food and oil prices are likely to remain an upside risk to the inflation outlook in south africa. monetary policy has to be sensitive to the impact of these developments on inflation expectations and we will act appropriately to prevent the emergence of more generalised inflation. the south african reserve bank remains committed to its primary mandate of ensuring price stability, that is the maintenance of cpix inflation between the target range of 3 to 6 per cent. finally, commodities will retain a central role in the south african economy in the future. a challenge facing our country, and one that is of particular relevance to this audience, is to ensure that women also play their rightful role in this area of economic activity. to this end the recognition of the achievements of women plays a significant role in fostering their interest in all sectors of the domestic economy. thank you.