*  *  *  Governor Jayawardena, Deputy Governor Wijewardena and friends, It gives me great pleasure to deliver this public lecture at the Centre for Banking Studies (CBS) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. It gives me greater pleasure to share the podium with Governor Jayawardena whom I greatly admire for his intellect, acumen and outstanding statesmanship.
The last time I shared the same forum with him was at the Second South Asia Forex Dealers’ Association Conference at Hyderabad in October 1998. The East Asian countries were still in the midst of crisis. I remember that he had listed do’s and don’ts of policy making for crisis avoidance, and his words of wisdom continue to be valid even today.