sub prime crisis, these funds have injected significant amounts of long term funds to the large ailing institutions to resurrect them or to prevent them from continuing with poor financial health. in that sense, the sovereign funds have acted as an immensely useful stabilizing force during the financial crisis. however, the injection of such funds has been received with mixed feelings in the geo - political context. i would think the debate on this development is just beginning and it would be useful for all of us to carefully watch the movement of this issue in time to come. another important development in reserve management is the extensive use of external fund managers. external fund managers are being increasingly engaged by central banks, as many central banks are yet to acquire the technical skills and competencies required to manage the new asset classes that are developing in these dynamic market conditions. i would think this factor too, would be one that we would have to give a lot of attention in the future, and as to how we make use of such expertise without compromising central banks ’ core objectives, would be a challenge for all of us. 6. my dear friends, given the importance of reserve management, it is timely to organize a seminar on this subject. when reading through your program, i realized that the organizers and the resource persons have done remarkably well in selecting the topics to be covered. in my view, the topics and presentations are just the right blend that a reserve manager would wish to focus on, in this day and age. finally, let me take this opportunity to sincerely thank the resource persons who have accepted our invitation to share their knowledge and experiences on various subjects relating to reserve management, the central banks of our member countries for showing high interest in this program, our own cbs for organizing this event, and i wish that all of us could benefit significantly from the program. i wish this seminar all success.

the world economy in particular. let me now say a few words about our own efforts in this sphere of activity. the initial phase of establishing a comprehensive framework for anti money laundering and combating financial terrorism in sri lanka was focused on the preparation of the draft legislation. with the passage of legislation, our efforts were then directed towards setting up of the infrastructure for the financial intelligence unit ( fiu ). we now have a fully operational fiu established in the central bank, the apex institution in the financial system in sri lanka, to meet both its local and international obligations. as you may be aware, sri lanka is presently engaged in a valiant effort to control many terrorist activities waged by the ltte, a group acknowledged worldwide as a terrorist movement. usa, canada, the eu and many other countries have banned this movement due to flagrant human rights violations and inhuman acts of terror. they have been designated as a terrorist group by most countries in the western hemisphere. as has been recognized worldwide, the most effective manner to undermine and defeat terrorist activities is to stop or curb its funding sources. notwithstanding the bans, the ltte has extended its tentacles in north america, the european union and australia. in response, those countries and nations are today taking meaningful steps to stop these fund raising activities and taking the perpetrators of such crimes to justice and we deeply appreciate such moves. the government of sri lanka is dedicated to winning the support of all countries in this regard through the exchange of information on a bi - lateral basis which would enhance bi - lateral co - operation through a structured exchange of information. only last week, one such initiative with switzerland was commenced where fruitful discussions were held to establish a framework and modalities for structured co - operation. it has also been recognized that efforts to combat the financing of terrorism require jurisdictions to expand the scope of the anti money laundering framework to include non profit organizations and, in particular, some dubious charities. this is to ensure that such organizations are not used, directly or indirectly, to finance and support terrorism. we are in possession of information of how certain so - called charities have been able to even hoodwink international agencies to donate funds to them for, seemingly, charitable or humanitarian causes, but which have, instead, been channeled for the upkeep of terrorist cadres and the provision of supplies to assist the terrorist effort. natural disasters such as the tsunami have also unwittingly lent a humanitarian face and ample cover to such activities. we,