".....Despite the worst housing market in the US since the Great Depression of 1929 and a significant US economic slowdown, Chinese economic growth fell by less than 1 per cent to 10.6 per cent in 2008 from 11.4 per cent in 2007,'' he said.
"We have long maintained that Chinese urbanisation is driving a permanent structural increase in energy and base metal demand, and fortunately for Australia we are very rich in both.''
A recent report by McKinsey Global Institute predicts China's urban population will grow from 572 million people in 2005 to 926 million by 2025 and one billion by 2030.
"In 20 years, China's cities will have added 350 million people - more than the entire population of the United States today,'' says the report, Preparing for China's Urban Billion.
"By 2025, China will have 219 cities with more than one million inhabitants - compared with 35 in Europe today - and 24 cities with more than five million people.''
With up to 50,000 skyscrapers to be built - the equivalent of 10 New York cities - and 170 mass-transit systems, China is going to need a lot of iron ore, copper and other natural resources that are buried underground in Australia..."
