DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladeshi garment exporters hope business in 2009-10 will match last year's exports of $12.35 billion but the global economic slowdown means previous rapid growth will be halted, an industry leader said on Wednesday 21 October.

"Despite the adverse economic situation we hope to take our exports to the level of last financial year," Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), told foreign media reporters.

Garment exports, including readymade garments, primary textiles and knitwear, account for more than 80 percent of national export income, and in the 12 months to June rose from $10.7 billion in the previous financial year, Murshedy said.

Despite a decline in garment exports in the first quarter of this fiscal year, which Murshedy could not quantify, exporters are still trying to attract orders from traditional buyers in Europe, the United States and Japan.

"We are also trying to attract non-conventional markets from other parts of the world, mainly in Africa," Murshedy said.

He said BGMEA will hold a three-day apparel fair in Dhaka from Nov. 5, to be opened by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and with 76 firms taking part including ones from China, India and Pakistan.

BGMEA represents 5,000 garment factories that employ about three million people, mostly women.

(Reporting by Nizam Ahmed; editing by Stephen Nisbet)