Even disastrously, the under-employment in agriculture in Sri Lanka is not only the highest but also on the increase. According to the Consumer Finances and Socio-economic Survey of the Central Bank, the underemployment in the agriculture sector in 1996/97 stood at 31 per cent of the employed and it rose to 36 per cent by 2003/04. In contrast, the underemployment in the services  2  BIS Review 116/2008  sector fell from 20 per cent to 18 per cent between the two reference periods and that in the industry remained unchanged at 20 per cent. This has to be seen as both a weakness and an opportunity. We know that food prices have recorded an unprecedented increase in recent times. Hence, there are immense opportunities arising from increased prices and resultant increase in production. At the same time, food security has to be ensured in order to avoid adverse consequences of increased food prices and also undue declines in stocks. Given these limitations, the obvious strategy is to increase productivity. Accordingly, attempts need to be made to concentrate on land, water, agricultural methods, seeds, harvesting, credit to agriculture, transport, harvesting storage, stable prices, value addition etc. to raise productivity in agriculture. If the growth is constrained by limited expansion in agriculture, can’t we focus more on the industry sector? Of course, we can. Unlike the agriculture, which is constrained with limited land availability, industry does not have capacity or demand limitations.
This support was embodied and exemplified as early as 2014 with the signature by the Banque of France of two memorandums of understanding with the HKMA and the People’s Bank of China. ***  Cooperation will also prove invaluable in the face of the uncertainty caused by structural challenges. A first structural challenge is the digital revolution. The digital revolution is being fuelled by a wave of cutting-edge technologies, but also by the surge of new players. This new competition is being driven by fintech start-ups, but also, more importantly, by tech firms that have started to expand into the financial sector. Here in Asia, you can testify as to just how rapidly big tech firms can impact the financial sector. While ensuring a level playing field between competitors, our role as a central bank and supervisor is to guarantee that the digital revolution eventually delivers on its promises regarding increased security and efficiency. At the same time, incumbents should be prepared to adapt. Their business models are being challenged by the unbundling of financial services and by increasing customer expectations in terms of responsiveness and autonomy. The answers are not easy and cannot be uniform, but I expect that only the most digitally agile financial companies will eventually prove financially resilient. Against this background, France has many assets that can make it a leader in digital innovation in Europe, and the Banque de France is committed to playing its part in this regard.