Increase imports, enjoy benefits

China has been under tremendous pressure, especially from the United States, to revaluate its currency more rapidly. Many a suggestion has been put forward to ease this pressure without harming the national economy. One of them is to encourage more imports, especially from Western countries, to balance international trade.

Wei Jianguo is one of the people who first supported the new import strategy. The secretary general of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and former vice-minister of commerce, says the import strategy would play a very important role during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). "It is just the right time to lay emphasis on imports" not only to end the debates on the yuan's revaluation, but also to help China's economic development in the long term. An effective import strategy can help the industrial transformation of the country and optimize the economic growth mode.

China's exports rose 25.1 percent in September from a year earlier to $144.99 billion, but the pace of growth slowed from August's 34.4-percent surge, the General Administration of Customs said on Wednesday.