i ’ ll close with a discussion of my dissents on recent fomc decisions. after that, i ’ ll be pleased to answer any questions you may have. and before i begin, i should remind you that my comments here today reflect my views alone and not necessarily those of others in the federal reserve system, including my fomc colleagues. the federal reserve bank of minneapolis is one of 12 regional reserve banks that, along with the board of governors in washington, d. c., make up the federal reserve system. our bank represents the ninth of the 12 federal reserve districts, and by area, we ’ re the second largest – thanks in no small part to the great state of montana. our district also includes the dakotas, minnesota, northwestern wisconsin and the upper peninsula of michigan. eight times per year, the fomc meets to set the path of monetary policy over the next six to seven weeks. all 12 presidents of the various regional federal reserve banks – including me – and the seven governors of the federal reserve board, including chairman bernanke, contribute to these deliberations. ( currently, there are only five governors – two positions are unfilled. ) however, the committee itself consists only of the governors, the president of the federal reserve bank of new york and a group of four other presidents that rotates annually. right now, that last group consists of the presidents from the minneapolis, philadelphia, dallas and chicago federal reserve banks. bis central bankers ’ speeches i ’ ve said that the fomc meets ( at least ) eight times per year. but how do these meetings work? at a typical meeting, there are two so - called go - rounds, in which every president and every governor has the opportunity to speak without interruption. the first of these is referred to as the economics go - round. it is kicked off by a presentation on current economic conditions by federal reserve staff economists. then, the presidents and governors describe their individual views on current economic conditions and their respective outlooks for future economic conditions. the presidents typically start by providing information about their district ’ s local economic performance. we get that information from our research staffs, but also from our interactions with business and community leaders in industries and towns from across our districts. the chairman speaks at the end of the first go - round. he briefly but thoroughly summarizes the preceding 16 perspectives. i can assure you that this is no easy task – and the chairman ’ s balanced and

sector, that is imports and exports as a percentage of gdp, declined from nearly 80 % to 45 % from 2005 to 2015. as a small open economy you simply cannot do that. the problems were compounded by a heavy recourse to foreign commercial borrowing for projects with low returns. that is what has led to the debt problems and many of the other difficulties we are having. when compared with regional peers and competitors, sri lanka ’ s export performance has lagged behind significantly. the export value index presented by the world bank shows the extent to which sri lanka ’ s export sector has been lagging in comparison to its regional counterparts, during the period from 2000 to 2015. sri lanka has only increased its exports by 1. 9 times in that period 2000 to 2015, while vietnam and bangladesh have increased by 11. 2 times and 5. 1 times respectively. even south korea and thailand which have a much higher base, increased their exports by 3. 1 times, whereas we, as i said only recorded a 1. 9. a key weakness as far as sri lanka ’ s exports structure is concerned is a lack of diversity in products and markets, as well as low complexity in the export basket. exports continue to be concentrated on two traditional products, namely garments and tea, which account for more than half of total exports. no major export item has been developed since the 1990s. the export sector shows page 6 of 17 a lack of diversification in terms of markets as well. europe and the usa continue to account for over half of total exports. further, approximately 70 % of tea exports are to the middle east and commonwealth of independent states, where demand is sensitive to oil prices which have been transformed by shale technology. the absence of effective trade finance also contributed to the subdued promotion of exports. at present, despite the share of industrial exports being around 77 % of total exports, it is estimated that high - tech exports account for less than 1 % of sri lanka ’ s total manufactured exports. improving this ratio entails investment in machinery, technology and skilled labour. it is necessary for our exporters to compete in complex products that are more technologically advanced. we are no longer a low wage economy, therefore we need to invest in, and become competitive in fairly complex export products, if we are to meet the aspirations of our people. now, there was, i think, a very legitimate question asked about the availability of labour. if you get into higher value exports, you create jobs which