China is expected to have more cars than the United States within 30 years, said Rong Huikang, deputy director of the expert panel of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

 

As the automobile market with the largest growth potential, China ranks third in the world in terms of automobile production, which has doubled since 2001 when the country was ranked seventh, said Zhang Xiuxue, deputy director of China International Research Institute of Multinational Corporations.

 

China now has 34 million cars with an annual average growth rate of 12 percent over the last 10 years, while the United States had 240 million cars in 2004.

 

According to the CAAM, China produced 3.05 million cars and sold 2.97 million cars in the first five months this year, up 32 percent and 31 percent on last year.

 

China's automobile industry will enter a golden age of development and should continue to follow the strategies of innovation, developing local automobile brands and prompting the Chinese brands overseas, Rong told Xinhua.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2006)