KARACHI, Dec 10: Exporters fear losing orders worth $70-80 million due to visa restriction imposed by the Singapore government, saying they are facing difficulties in meeting their appointment dates with foreign buyers.

Many garment exporters have to cancel their appointments due to this restriction. They pay regular visit to the regional buying offices of major retailers located in Singapore to secure orders, but now they are facing problems.

Many exporters have prepared samples worth millions of rupees to present in their meeting with foreign counterparts, but they could not reach the destination in time.

Member, Quota Supervisory Council (QSC), Mohammad Azam, told Dawn on Monday that exporters would lose an estimated $70-80 million export orders for next year. He said the major share of garment export was to the US and almost all branded labels of the world, who deal with Pakistani counterparts (vendors), have their regional offices in Singapore. They are: GAP, Walmart, J.C. Penny, Sears, Old Navy, Goody’s, Blair Corporation, Zellers, Khols etc.

“Our garment representation is virtually non-existence now since the Singapore’s visa restriction,” he said, adding if this business does not come to Pakistan, exporters will find difficulties to get back these orders in coming years.

He said the business community had taken up the matter with the Commerce Ministry to do something about.

Azam said that Singapore should remove this restriction on Pakistan as Afghan war was heading for a solution. If they cannot remover the restriction, at least issue visa in 48 hours for 15 days for the business community, he added, urging the government to take up the matter with the Singaporean authorities so that the issue could be resolved immediately.

Pakistan’s overall exports will lose $1.5 to $2 billion due to cancellation and slow placement of orders by the foreign buyers. Exporters are facing problems after September 11 incident in the US in shape of delay in clearance by the US customs of containers, slow arrival of foreign buyers, holding back payments against confirmed LCs and war risk premium.