The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has started drafting policies to promote mergers and acquisitions in the automobile industry which should be ready by the end of 2010. The general idea is to encourage the formation of two to three large automobile groups with annual output and sales exceeding 2 million units, and four to five automobile groups with annual output and sales exceeding 1 million units. People’s Daily Online quoted an executive from an automobile group as saying that the next five to 10 years will be a golden period for mergers and acquisitions in China’s automobile industry. The General Office of the State Council has ranked the automobile industry first among six industries in the recently released ‘Opinions of the State Council on Accelerating Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions and Reconstruction.’