The Hon. (Dr.) Janaka Senarathna
Hon. (Dr.) Janaka Senarathna raised a point of Order responding to Hon. Hesha Withanage’s allegation that he had made an untrue statement. He cited Central Bank, National Gem and Jewellery Authority, and EDB reports, stating that gem exports earned USD 168 million last year and about USD 100 million annually over two decades, while operating about 8,000 mines costs around USD 200 million a year. He asked that relevant research on the sector’s economic and environmental impacts be reviewed and suggested holding a separate debate on the matter.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Sir, I rise to a point of Order.
¶ 02 Hon. Hesha Withanage referred to me as having stated something untrue. I direct him to study the last ten years of Central Bank Reports, the National Gem and Jewellery Authority Annual Reports, and EDB reports. Last year gems earned USD 168 million; over twenty years around USD 100 million annually. Operating around 8,000 mines costs about USD 200 million a year. Please review the research papers (about 120 pages) on economic and environmental impacts available at the Authority and from mining engineers. We can have a separate debate on this.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Friday, 10 October 2025 ·No. 22640 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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/lk/speeches/13945
Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Janaka Senarathna. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 10 October 2025. No. 22640. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/13945