As Chinese people raise their glasses today, they toast not only the 53rd National Day but also the dawn of a new era.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party will have its most important and sweeping leadership changes for more than a decade at its landmark 16th Party Congress next month.
This will be followed by an extensive government reshuffle when the 10th National People's Congress is convened in March. In December, China will also mark its first year as a member of the World Trade Organisation. According to official estimates, China's utilised foreign investment will reach US$50 billion (HK$390 billion) this year for the first time, overtaking the United States as the most favourite destination for foreign direct investment (FDI).
In the first eight months of this year, utilised foreign investment rose 25.5 per cent year-on-year to US$34.4 billion.
Fuelled by an influx of FDI and massive state spending, the mainland economy is moving along at a brisk pace - one of the few bright spots in a gloomy global economy that has been dragged down by weak demand and prospects of a war on Iraq.
Economists predict that the mainland's economy will grow 7.5 per cent this year, up from 7.3 per cent last year.