In addition, the system provided a market guaranteed price to both buyers and producers enabling them to plan their cash flows properly. It also helped both parties to raise loans from banks for both working capital and investment capital purposes. The future sustainability of the forward sale contract system will depend on the establishment of proper futures market for commodities in Sri Lanka. It is ironical that Sri Lanka, being a country famous for its rich spices throughout history and three major commodities, viz., tea, rubber and coconut, in the last 150 years, has to think of setting a futures market in the country at this late stage, when all the other countries in the region have moved much ahead in that context. However, the initial work relating to the establishment of a futures exchange is presently being done with the initiative taken by the Central Bank. Technical assistance for this purpose has been received from the Futures Commodities Exchange in India and the exchange is to be set up within the next 2 year period. Part IV Summary and conclusions This paper examined the strategies adopted by Sri Lanka, with the initiative of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, to introduce a sustainable socio-economic security system based on the principles of the market mechanism. Despite the popular belief that the poor need subsidised  27  In fact, the system was largely saved by the flexible approach of buyers when the market price was significantly higher than the contract price of a produce.
W A Wijewardena: Sustainable socio-economic security – some lessons from the experiences of Sri Lanka Speech by Mr W A Wijewardena, Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, at the International Conference on “Universalizing Socio-economic Security in South Asia”, organized by The Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague, and the Institute for Human Development (IHD), New Delhi, 17-20 February 2008. This paper is based on the personal experiences of the writer as Director of Small Farmers and the Landless Credit Project, dubbed in Sinhala as “Isuru Project”, when he was the Director of Rural Credit of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka from 1993 to 2000 and Deputy Governor in charge of this portfolio since then. The credit for the achievements of Isuru Project is shared equally by all the stakeholders involved in the Project. The views expressed in the paper are those of the writer and should not be construed as those of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. *  *  *  Introduction History is abundant with numerous initiatives taken by mankind, both through state action and personal enterprise, to ensure socio-economic security, or in layman’s language, opportunity for all the people to enjoy the benefits of economic prosperity without discrimination or reservation. In ancient times in Sri Lanka, the kings took it upon themselves the responsibility for creating such a society which was considered as a just society 1 .