The Import and Export Bank of China (China Exim Bank) has granted US$20 billion of supportive fund to promote Chinese imports from other countries, a bank official said on Thursday.

China Exim Bank will step up such support, said the bank's governor Li Ruogu at a press briefing during the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

China's trade surplus hit USE$185.65 billion in the first nine months, surpassing the US$177.47 billion for the whole of 2006, according to the General Administration of Customs.

China Exim Bank, established in 1994, serves as a state policy bank aimed at boosting China's foreign trade and economic cooperation by providing policy financing service, onlending foreign government loans and lending the Chinese Government Concessional Loan.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2007)