China's Top target coordinated development to raise quality of urbanization

China's top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng on Tuesday underlined the significance of coordinated development in raising the quality of urbanization.

Yu, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said at a CPPCC meeting that China should coordinate efforts of industrialization, informatization and agricultural modernization in seeking high-quality urbanization.

The country's urbanization drive should be human-oriented to provide people with better production and living conditions, Yu said.

China should also push forward industrial transformation and upgrading, as well as the development of industrial clusters to create more job opportunities, he said.

In the central economic work conference last year, the government said it would steadily push forward urbanization in 2013, as urbanization is a major driver for domestic demand.

The country's urban population reached 711.82 million at the end of last year, accounting for 52.6 percent of the country's total, official data showed.

Also addressing the meeting, Vice Premier Wang Yang urged the country to accelerate the reform of its household registration system and the drive to provide equal basic public services to all residents.

Australia: facing problems for its Gas Projects. US Shale Gas Boom.

From the WSJ.

 Once a first choice country for energy investment due to its political stability and large
natural-gas reserves.
Appreciation of the currency and higher wages than expected,blowout Capex of Australian Big Gas
Projects.
 "Although those problems have been around for a while, they are becoming more worrisome now that gas prices elsewhere have dropped and buyers have more options for securing energy supply.
The industry has more than US$160 billion of liquefied natural gas investments currently in flight [being built]. But upward of another US$100 billion in potential future projects could be at risk," Chevron Australia Managing Director Roy Krzywosinski said.
Chevron and partners Exxon and Royal Dutch Schell Plc, have delayed work to expand their US$52 billion Gorgon project. Gorgon is Australia's largest natural-gas resource, containing an estimated 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas—enough to meet U.S. demand for two years. Chevron is the project's operator and largest shareholder. The Browse project has also been delayed.
Project delays carry large risks for companies like Chevron as future supply from Australia would compete for customers with U.S. projects offering cheaper gas. LNG in Asia has traditionally been sold via long-term contracts, with prices linked to relatively expensive crude oil, whereas export deals in North America are based on sharply lower domestic gas prices there. Analysts think Australian gas-export prices may need to fall by as much as 25% to compete with U.S. gas prices.

In May, the U.S. approved Freeport LNG Development LP's $10 billion Quintana LNG-export project in Texas, the second U.S. development to move forward after Chenerie Energy Inc.'s  Sabine Pass project in Louisiana.

Both involve converting old LNG import terminals into export facilities, making them cheaper to build than Australian projects because infrastructure—such as pipelines and storage tanks—is already in place".