RANMINI GUNASEKARA Courtesy Ceylon Today

The continuous power cuts carried out by the Ceylon Electricity Board has adversely affected exports and potential Foreign Direct Investments, claimed Executive Committee Member of the Federation of the Chambers of Commerce, Dr. Krishanth Wisenthige today (10).

He was speaking at a ‘Professionals for a Better Future (Viyathmaga)’ press conference held at the Viyathmaga headquarters in Ethul Kotte.

People can think that it’s only large companies in Sri Lanka that export products. But that’s not true because there are many small scale manufacturers of coconut related-products which export. When you’re exporting products, it’s essential to earn the trust of the overseas buyer by delivering the products on time, but due to these power cuts these entrepreneurs are unable to meet the demands,” he noted.

Wisenthige further added that potential foreign investors would also have second thoughts about investing in a country that has three hour power cuts.

Who would want to invest in Sri Lanka with all these power cuts? There are plenty of developing countries out there that do not have this sort of energy crisis,” he added.

Meanwhile, Chartered Engineer Sanjeewa Anupama also speaking at the Press said the country needed more dis-patchable energy generation.

Most of the energy sources such as solar, wind and even hydropower are non-dispatchable energy sources. We only get them when there is wind, sun or water. At a time when non of this is available, we need energy sources that are dispatchable, which means energy sources that will continuously be available on demand such as coal,” he added.

Wisenthige further said the economy could have benefitted from the addition of the Sampur Power Plant, and added that while there would have been a certain amount of environmental repercussions, the benefits would have outweighed the drawbacks