Business News
Singapore ranks in top 10 for well-managed government wealth funds
Sep 4, 2008, 9:59 GMT
Singapore - Two Singapore sovereign wealth funds were ranked sixth and seventh in the world for good governance and transparency by a US-based economic think tank, a newspaper reported Thursday.
Tamasek Holdings was sixth, followed by the Singapore Government Investment Corp, The Straits Times said.
The rankings of 100 government investment funds by the Peterson Institute for International Economics put Norway's Pension Fund-Global in the top position.
The rankings were released at a summit this week of global sovereign wealth funds and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Santiago, Chile.
Twenty-six of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds reached a preliminary agreement meant to address concerns about their growing commercial investments around the globe and questions about whether their investments were political rather than financially motivated.
The 24 voluntary guidelines included issues like transparency, accountability, governance, sources of funding and use of earnings.
Sovereign wealth funds collectively control an estimated 3 trillion US dollars of assets. Funds from Singapore, China and the United Arab Emirates this year have pumped much needed capital into ailing financial companies, such as Citibank Inc, Merrill Lynch and Co, Morgan Stanley and UBS AG.
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AnonymousSep 5th, 2008 - 22:31:20
I don't see any glory for any country in amassing SWF. If anything it has a negative correlation with how much the political leaders care about its citizens. In Singapore the government taxes everybody to the hilt and diverts all the excess money to their SWF instead of redistributing it to the people. In contrast, in Hong Kong, whenever the government gets some excess tax funds, they simply redistribute it among the people such as in the form of rebates on their property tax. They also redistribute it by heavily subsidising the medical expenses of the poor. No one in Hong Kong need pay more than HK$100 = S$18 for any single treatment of any disease.
Another example is the traffic congestion taxes. In Singapore such congestion taxes are diverted to SWF, whereas in London the congestion taxes are ploughed back to subsidise the public transport fares. That is why bus fares in London are so much lower on a per kilometre basis. London could easily build up a huge SWF from all its congestion taxes, or if it simply stops all its free health services to the people.
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