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

to the conclusion of my speech. at the outset, i mentioned that our country faced several difficulties during 2018 which threatened macroeconomic stability. however, in retrospect, i can record that the central bank and the government decisively intervened and implemented several policy measures to mitigate the impact of such challenges and uncertainties. it is evident that these measures have helped us to withstand certain shocks that we faced and to ensure broader stability of the economy in spite of some sectoral imbalances. nevertheless, we do acknowledge that several challenges and threats still prevail and there is a plethora of impending risks that may exert further pressures on overall macroeconomic and financial system stability. we believe that preemptive and effective policy measures would help us to mitigate those challenges and guide our economy and the financial sector in the right direction and ultimately achieve the price, economic and financial system stability to create a conducive enabling environment to improve the living standards of our people. we stand ready to pursue policies and introduce any course corrections if they become necessary in today ’ s volatile and uncertain world. before i conclude, it is my solemn duty and responsibility to convey my deep sense of gratitude and appreciation to several individuals and parties who constantly supported the efforts of the central bank. first and foremost, i am extremely grateful to his excellency the president and the honourable prime minister for their leadership and guidance. i would also like to thank honourable minister of finance for his support, especially to strengthen the independence of the central bank while ensuring the close coordination between the ministry and the central bank. further, i owe a special debt of gratitude for the ample support and fruitful discussions and inputs from the members of the monetary board of the central bank. my sincere appreciation goes to secretaries to the treasury who served as ex - officio members of the monetary board during 2018. i am also grateful to mrs. manohari ramanathan, mr. chrisantha perera and mr. nihal fonseka whose unstinting support, as members of the monetary board, was extremely invaluable and substantive. i am also grateful to senior deputy governor dr. nandalal weerasinghe, and the deputy governors, mr. k d ranasinghe, mr. s r attygalle and mr. h a karunaratne. their support and contribution in terms of highly professional advice and excellent technical expertise helped me to effectively discharge the duties as the ceo of this iconic institution