The State Council officially issued "the 12^th Five-Year-Plan for Energy Development" (hereafter referred to as the Plan) on the 23rd and proposed implementation of the dual control of energy consumption intensity and total energy consumption. The total energy consumption target has been set at 4 billion tons of standard coal, the electricity consumption target at 6.15 trillion kWh of electricity consumption, and energy consumption per unit of GDP is to be reduced by 16% from the level of 2010. The Plan proposed to optimize the energy structure, in which the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption is to be increased to 11.4%, with an installed capacity accounting for 30%. The share of natural gas in primary energy consumption is to be increased to 7.5%, with that of coal to be reduced to 65%. The Plan also specifies that by 2015 the unit GDP carbon dioxide emission is to be reduced to 17% of the level of 2010, and the emission intensity of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is to be reduced by over 30% in the process of energy development and utilization.

British Petroleum (BP) has released its latest report on the long-term outlook for the global energy trend on the 23rd. The report points out that fossil fuels will still account for 82% of the world's total energy consumption by 2030. In the period between 2000 and 2011, China has contributed 55% to the growth rate of global energy consumption; the figure will remain as high as 43% in the period between 2011 and 2030.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued a document entitled Guidance Views on the Acceleration of Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions in Key Industries" (hereafter referred to as the Guidance Views). The Guidance Views set out very clear goals and tasks for the mergers and acquisitions in the following major industries, including the automobile, steel, cement, shipbuilding, electrolytic aluminum, rare earth, electronic information, medicine, agricultural industrialization. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology indicated that the biggest feature of the Guidance Views is to adhere to the principle of market-oriented operation, enterprise-centered, and the government playing the role of policy guidance. It aims to eliminate all institutional obstacles that constraint corporate mergers and acquisitions, avoid arbitrarily pair-ups, thus promoting the coordinated development of medium and small enterprises.