Sittwe: Nearly ten internet cafes that have recently opened Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, are having challenges staying afloat due to weak profits, said one young cafe owner.

"A big obstacle is electricity, because the authority supplies only two hours electricity per day in our city, from 7 pm to 9 pm. So we have to use a generator for the shop during the day time. As the price of fuel is going up, our revenue is not enough to cover the expense of the shop," he said.

An individual internet user has to pay 600 kyats per hour, but this does not provide sufficient revenue for the owners to cover their costs.

"In our cafe, there are five computers, but all computers are not being used at the same time. It is impossible to use the generator to run the shop for the whole day because the fuel price is very expensive. So we open our cafe from 9 am to 11 am in the morning, and 7 pm to 9 pm in the evening each day," he added.

In Sittwe, there are ten internet shops, including Kiss, Information Center, and Wisdom City. All the internet shops are now facing problems with low revenue.

Another internet cafe owner said that his own shop will be closed temporarily from next month because he is unable to continue its operation while losing money.

A student from Sittwe Government Technical College said, "We want to visit internet cafes regularly, but we are unable to there as the fees for using the internet are very expensive. Furthermore, the internet speed in the shops is very slow and suffers delays due to the shortage of power."

Despite these problems, many students wish to visit the internet cafes but are simply unable to afford the 1,000 kyat per day that it can cost.

"I think only ten percent of people in Sittwe, including students, visit internet cafes to check email. The rate of internet use is much lower compared with other cities our size," he said.

The military government often proclaims that the government is working for the development of all the people of Burma, but for the four million people living in Arakan State there are only ten internet cafes, and these are now facing imminent closure due to high operational expenses.