The government has also identified the need to focus on developing regional infrastructure facilities in order to stimulate economic activities in the regions as well as to quickly distribute  BIS Review 88/2007  5  the gains of higher economic growth to the people who are living in remote areas. The ongoing “Maga Neguma”, “Gama Neguma” and “Neganahira Navodaya” programmes are particularly aimed at fulfilling this need. In the meantime, the Central Bank, in collaboration with the Finance Commission has initiated a new approach to examine new ways of maximizing the Provincial Councils’ contribution in the regional development process. We have observed that even after the existence of Provincial Councils for about two decades, the inequalities among the provinces still prevail and in fact have widened over the years. Hence, it is clear that we have to introduce a new and innovative strategy to develop our provinces. In line with this objective, as the first step of this new initiative, the Central Bank and Finance Commission, along with several other stakeholders, are in the process of identifying the issues, difficulties and potential of the respective Provincial Councils to improve the provincial contribution towards achieving balanced regional development. Finding ways and means to increase the private sector participation in the development process without solely depending on government funds is the key feature of this new approach. Not surprisingly, there will always be an intense debate about the trade-off between the growth momentum of an economy and the equitable distribution of benefits.
You are notorious for your ability to pick apart shallow arguments and for your intolerance of superficiality. Your brilliant mind has often put you at the forefront of European debates. In the 1990s you were already writing about how to build a more deeply integrated European framework around the countries that would go on to share the single currency.3 You understood very early on that a monetary union comprising different sovereign states can only be sustainable if there is mutual trust. And you realised that trust does not emerge through declarations or treaties: it is built through actions that demonstrate the commitment of states to abide by the promises they have signed up to. You saw, in other words, that rules are not an end in themselves. I have so often heard you mention the words “implementation, implementation”, because you knew that it is through faithful implementation and respect for the rules that trust builds up between countries. And it is once trust has developed that more sharing of sovereignty can follow, which reinforces the strength of the Union and each of its members. In the face of changing reality, the challenge, of course, is how to ensure that governance is both credible and flexible. As you have said yourself, “sticking to rules […] does not mean a lack of creativity or originality.” 4 And it is this spirit that we will need to channel in our efforts to deepen our Economic and Monetary Union.