China announces import support measures as Apec leaders arrive China tossed a bone to trading partners attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting this week by announcing a series of measures including more bank credit for high-tech imports and quicker approvals for meat and seafood shipments. Apec leaders converging on Beijing are intent on accessing China's vast market. More equipment imports would appeal to the US, Japan and Korea while more fruit, seafood and meat imports would be welcomed by neighbouring Taiwan, southeast Asia and especially Australia, which hopes to ink a bilateral trade deal later this month. The high-tech equipment imports would help upgrade China's industrial capacity, the state council said. The support comes as many state-owned businesses, laden with debt from recent expansions and upgrades and restricted from accessing new loans if their industry has overbuilt, struggle to meet new mandates from Beijing to keep economic growth ticking along. "Banks and financial institutions are encouraged to strengthen their credit support [to help] broaden imports of high-tech equipment and key components to promote structural adjustment and upgrading," the statement from the state council said. It urged energy and resources companies to invest abroad and secure strategic resources, even as Chinese overseas energy investments - with the exception of Russian gas deals - have dried up following a buying binge in recent years. "Stabilise energy and resources supply, raise the capacity to guarantee market supply," it added. There are signs that state oil company CNPC, parent of listed PetroChina, has already been spurred by falling prices to snap up oil cargos on the Singapore spot market. Much of that oil may be going to fill strategic reserves, market insiders said. Similarly, China's State Reserve Bureau has become an active purchaser as copper prices have fallen, market traders said. Benchmark international copper have shed about 8 per cent since midsummer.