Annual Report 2025

INVESTMENT MANAGER’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS (CONTINUED) China Merchants China Direct Investments Limited Annual Report 2025 35 PROSPECTS (CONTINUED) The Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2025 set the direction for China’s economic development in 2026. In 2026, efforts will be made to promote effective quality improvement and reasonable quantity growth in respect of the economy, to ensure a good start to the implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan. Eight key tasks were mentioned in the conference. The first was to adhere to the dominant position of domestic demand and build a strong domestic market. In-depth special campaigns should be carried out to boost consumption, and plans for increasing the income of urban and rural residents should be formulated and implemented. The supply of high-quality goods and services shall be expanded. The second is to persist in innovation-driven development and step up the cultivation and expansion of new drivers. A plan for integrated promotion of the development of educational and technical talents should be formulated. The third is to persist in tackling key problems through reform and enhance the fuel and vitality of high-quality development. Efforts should be made to formulate regulations on the construction of a unified national market and thoroughly rectify involutionary competition. The fourth is to persist in opening- up and promote win-win cooperation in multiple fields. It is imperative to steadily promote institutional opening- up, orderly expand the independent opening-up of service areas, optimize the layout of pilot free trade zones, and solidly propel the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port. The fifth is to adhere to coordinated development and promote integrated development of urban and rural areas and regional linkage. Efforts should be made to promote urbanization with county towns as important carriers and advance comprehensive rural revitalization under an overall plan so as to boost high-quality development of the county economy. The sixth is to adhere to the “Dual Carbon” principle to drive comprehensive green transformation. Energy saving and carbon reduction should be deepened in key industries. The seventh is to prioritize people’s livelihood and strive to provide more practical services for the people. Efforts should be made to implement the campaign of stabilizing posts, expanding jobs, and improving employment quality, stabilize the employment of key groups such as college graduates and migrant workers, and encourage and support flexible employees and people employed in new forms to participate in employee insurance. The eighth is to keep the bottom line and proactively and steadily resolve risks in key areas. Efforts should be made to stabilize the real estate market by implementing differentiated policies in light of the actual situations of cities to control increment, destock, and optimize supply, and by encouraging the purchase of existing commercial housing, which should be offered as affordable housing afterward. Given that China’s economy shows both resilience and great potential, its long-term supporting conditions and economic outlook for prosperity has not changed and the potential for investment demand remains strong. As an example, the AI industry and new-type infrastructure construction will continue to receive greater support from government policies, as well as more attention from capital markets. With the AI industry ushering in an explosive technological transition, model capabilities, application boundaries, and industrial ecology have been reshaped via several core breakthroughs, open-source and efficient model ecology have exploded one after another, and embodied intelligence and super models in certain fields have been emerging, which will profoundly change the traditional industrial structure. It is here that the Fund will continue to seek out the best opportunities for investment.