budgeting that started in australia and south africa has not been followed or continued by many countries. sri lanka too recognized that there is a need to separately account for gender contribution in the budget. in that regard, some of us managed to include a couple of paragraphs announcing the gender budgeting policy in the 1999 budget, but there has been no follow up since then. drawbacks in financial inclusion and uneven ground situation the banking and financial sector in the country must be strong for financial inclusion to take place. our banking sector has been showing advancement and growth. the financial system is stable and resilient. the financial institutions are committed to engage in social responsibility related work as well, or to reach out to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, of which women occupy an important place. despite the advancement of the financial sector and the resilience of the system as a whole, we are still unable to appreciate or criticize its commitment towards financial inclusion of and access to finance by women, due to lack of disaggregated data from banks and financial institutions. this, i believe, is the biggest drawback in initiating policy responses to remedy the deficiencies in financial inclusion of women. the absence of balanced regional or provincial growth is another important drawback in enhancing financial inclusion of women. gdp growth has been uneven throughout the post independent period. growth in the western province has been around 50 %, while all other provinces accounted for the balance. this uneven growth has resulted in a skewed income distribution, varying degree of poverty, marginalization and unemployment issues, as well as financial exclusion in the other regions of the country. however, the significant growth in the western province has resulted in notable enhancement in access to finance and financial inclusion. table 1 banking density as at 31. 12. 2007 ( provisional ) district no. of populabanking populabanking outlets tion per tion density branch ( all ('00, 000 ) banks ) * province banking population density per branch colombo 24. 56 16. 90 5, 918. 07 gampaha 21. 40 8. 13 12, 298. 85 kalutara 11. 11 8. 01 12, 483. 15 matale 4. 77 7. 97 12, 552. 63 kandy 13. 80 6. 96 14, 375. 00 nuwara eliya 7. 42 6. 20 16, 130. 43 galle 10. 52 7. 41 13, 487. 18 matara 8. 13

and more stable with regard to the “ too big to fail ” and the “ too big to rescue ” issues. if this succeeds, the competitive position of the swiss banking sector will be reinforced in the long - term as a result of increased safety, reliability and credibility. the fact that the swiss federal council has appointed a commission of experts on the subject of “ too big to fail ” is an important step, which we welcome. the willingness of the big banks to participate actively in elaborating solutions to the “ too big to fail ” and “ too big to rescue ” issues is also welcome. these latest developments clearly show how urgent the problems are. ladies and gentlemen, if we do not manage to fundamentally reform the financial system, it is to be feared that a future crisis of even greater dimensions will trigger such a strong protectionist and regulatory reaction that the damage done will extend even to the market economy to which we owe our prosperity. we owe it to future generations to take action against this danger. doing nothing is not an option.