“The composition of Chinese GDP growth has changed dramatically over the last three to five years,” Dodd Kittsley, the New York-based global head of ETF national accounts and strategy at Deutsche Bank AG’s Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management unit, said in a telephone interview.

The exchange link between Hong Kong and Shanghai will debut on Nov. 17, regulators said in a joint statement today. The program permits international money managers to purchase a net 13 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) a day of Chinese shares, while also providing a route for mainland investors to buy Hong Kong equities.

MSCI Benchmarks

Speculation that relaxed capital controls will entice index providers including MSCI Inc. to incorporate China’s local shares into global gauges is also attracting investors.

About $9 trillion is benchmarked against MSCI indexes globally, according to the company’s website, including more than $1 trillion to its emerging-market index. China could comprise between 30 and 50 percent of the developing-nation gauge in the next decade if domestic securities are added, up from less than 20 percent now, according to Brendan Ahern, managing director at Krane Fund Advisors LLC, which oversees three Chinese ETFs.

“You have a continued opening up that’s accelerating,” Ahern said by phone. “China wants to see their markets become more institutionalized, and foreigners help in that process.”

Krane and E Fund Management (Hong Kong) Co. are set to introduce the China Commercial Paper ETF later this month, giving international investors access to one of the shortest-maturity portions of the country’s bond market, the third-largest worldwide.

Rated Debt

The average yield on AA-rated debt in China due in about 90 days is 4.31 percent, according to data compiled by ChinaBond. By contrast, non-financial commercial paper of that maturity with similar ratings in the U.S. pays 0.09 percent, according to the Federal Reserve’s website.

The ETF will start with about $330 million of government approved quota, according to David Zhang, chief investment officer at E Fund HK.

Money managers who register new ETFs with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission still face several hurdles before the funds can start trading. There are more than 1,000 ETFs currently filed with U.S. regulators, according to data compiled by ETF.com, including many that’ll never make it to market.