We commend the government for its handling of the outbreak of Sars and the concrete steps it is taking to relaunch Hong Kong and rebuild the city's image. We would like to draw the attention of the Hong Kong government to the escalating concern expressed by many importers and buyers in Europe (and possibly other regions) who are very wary of ordering goods from the mainland and Hong Kong. Our company recently had one confirmed order cancelled and a probable order shelved because of fear of Sars. The clients are afraid that the goods might be infected with viruses and so they are cancelling already ordered goods and not placing new orders from countries that are battling Sars. We are sure that many other companies in Hong Kong and mainland China must have had a similar experience. It seems the Hong Kong government is planning to rebuild the city's image with a budget of $1 billion. We earnestly ask the government to allocate some of that budget to spreading the word worldwide, in newspapers, to allay the fears of importers and final buyers about buying goods from China. This is a very serious situation which, if left to continue without positive assurances from the government, will lead to the collapse of many businesses in Hong Kong and other countries where there are Sars infections. MOHAN PANJABI, Tsim Sha Tsui
