World financial crisis has provided an opportunity for Bangladesh's garment industry to get more orders, an exporter said in Dhaka Thursday.

Khalil Rahman Chowdhury, chairman of Khalil Group, a medium- sized garment company, told Xinhua Thursday that his company is getting more orders than before but with less prices.

Khalil said the western buyers are cutting their prices because of the financial crisis.

"China and other garment manufacturing countries can't afford the price cut, but we can because our labors are cheaper and they can work overtime," he said.

"The workers in my factories are working 3 hours more, they earn more, they are happy," he added.

Khalil said, "If we improve our efficiency, it will not be a problem for surviving."

He said it is the toughest time for Bangladesh's garment industry since it started in early 1980s.

"We had more comfortable time when it was easy to make money, but now profit becomes less," he said.

"Garment export is the major export industry in Bangladesh, so we must try our best to survive in the financial crisis," he added.

The export of garment in Bangladesh rose to 10.7 billion U.S. dollars in the last fiscal year (from July 2007 to June 2008) comparing with 9.3 billion U.S. dollars a year ago, accounting for 76 percent of total export in the country.

The garment industry of Bangladesh employs around 2.5 million workers, 85 percent of them are women.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2008)