Ten years ago the government in Beijing launched a “Made in China 2025” campaign with the aim of driving the industrial transformation of the emerging market. China was no longer to be the workshop of the world and was to reduce its dependence on foreign technology. At the same time, the leadership planned to advance into strategically important sectors within global supply chains such as semiconductors, robotics, aerospace and biomedicine. “Made in China 2025” is now approaching the end point. An analysis by the World Economic Forum (WEF) indicates that China has reached its goals in many respects. To give an example, the country now dominates key green technologies such as the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, solar modules and electric vehicles. In other sectors, however, expectations have not been met. Among other areas, according to the WEF, China remains dependent on imports for advanced semiconductors.
These and other shortcomings do not alter the fact that “Made in China 2025” has proved to be a highly promising investment idea. The tracker certificate on the Swissquote China´s Dragons Index was launched at the start of 2019. Aimed at China’s structural change, the underlying is focused on key sectors such as robotics, aviation, renewable energies, IT, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and vehicles with new drive forms. Preference is given to companies whose business strategy is geared to China and which accordingly realise the majority of their revenue on the domestic market. The Swissquote experts review the composition several times a year and adjust it when necessary. This has resulted in a systematic and dynamic index whose performance speaks for itself: the tracker certificate has more than doubled since its issue, leaving the MSCI China Index trailing far in its wake. The market-wide benchmark recorded growth of about 40% over the period under review.
A search for the most promising Chinese “dragons” continues to make sense. Beijing is in the process of closing the gap in the high-tech sector. With DeepSeek, an application for artificial intelligence, the Middle Kingdom has caused just as much of a stir as with its plans to boost domestic semiconductor production. Among those to benefit from these plans are technology groups such as Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba. This trio are included in the Swissquote China’s Dragons Index and have significantly boosted the index's performance in recent months. Alibaba stands out, with the capitalisation of the internet and e-commerce giant more than doubling in the first three quarters of 2025. The company is fully committed to AI and has just announced cooperation with US semiconductor group Nvidia, the expansion of global data centres and new products.
The Swissquote China’s Dragons Index has much more to offer than technology, with financial and consumer stocks also playing a role. These could come into focus when Beijing presents the 15th five-year plan in October. Rather like it did for the “Made in China 2025” initiative, the government will probably use this to push forward the country's rise to a modern service society. Generally speaking, the five-year plan and its adoption early next year could prove to be an additional catalyst for Chinese equities. The tracker certificate on the Swissquote China’s Dragons Index enables investors to capitalise on the momentum in the Far East and build a diversified and actively managed position. The management fee for the USD-denominated product is 0.70% p.a. There is also a rebalancing fee of 0.15%. By the way, the tracker certificate also participates in the net distributions of the shares contained in the underlying, which are accumulated.
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