The total worth of China's imports is expected to exceed 1.5 trillion US dollars from 2004 to 2006, said Deng Zhan, an official with the Ministry Commerce Tuesday.

China's imports have realized fast growth for the three consecutive years since 2001 and the scale of absorbing foreign investment has been further enlarged, said Wang Zhan at China Mining 2004 symposium that opened Tuesday in Beijing.

The imports volume of China reached 412.8 billion US dollars in 2003, making it the third largest importer in the world. Besides, China absorbed 53.5 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, making it first in the world in FDI.

In the first nine months this year, China's imports have exceeded 412.3 billion US dollars, up 38.2 percent over the same period last year. The number of foreign investment enterprises newly registered in the period rose 9.2 percent year-on-year to 32,200, with actual foreign investment of 48.69 billion US dollars, up 21 percent.

This year, China's imports are expected to exceed 500 billion US dollars and China would absorb foreign investment of more than 62 billion US dollars, said Wang.

The rapid growth in per capita income among the Chinese, one-fifth of the world population, has created huge purchasing power.

From 2001 to 2003, China imported commodities worth about one trillion US dollars with an average annual increase of 22.4 percent, said Wang.

He said that it was estimated that by 2020 China's gross domestic products (GDP) would reach four trillion US dollars and the total worth of its domestic retailing of consumer goods would reach 2.4 trillion US dollars.

By then, the China's annual imports would reach about one trillion US dollars and China would become the second largest market in the world, Wang said.