Sri Lanka, Feb. 12 -- Chaya Dissanayake (Research Officer, IPS), Dr Asanka Wijesinghe (Research Fellow, IPS), Dilani Hirimuthugodage (Research Economist, IPS)
The recent cyclonic storm Ditwah disrupted micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) islandwide, caused by production disruptions, infrastructure damage (including roads and mobile networks), supply-chain interruptions, and reduced access to markets. Rapid responses were necessary for the MSME sector to restart business operations and reconnect to markets. In fact, the effects of Cyclone Ditwah might amplify preexisting vulnerabilities in the MSME sector, including a heavy debt burden, informality, susceptibility to domestic demand shocks, and limited technical capacity to build c...