Many countries seem to be climbing on the bandwagon of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). Just before Christmas Singapore Temasek took a chunk of Merrill Lynch with an injection of $4.4 billion while the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) put in $9.75 billion into the banking giant UBS earlier in the month in the aftermath of the US subprime crisis.
Earlier this year Abu Dhabi’s SWF pumped in $7.5 billion into Citigroup while China’s Investment Corporation took up 9.9 percent of the stakes of Merrill Lynch for a cool $5 billion.
The assets of SWFs today are estimated at $2-3 trillion and Morgan Stanley projects that these funds could reach an incredible $17.5 trillion within just ten years. Among the SWFs what strikes me most are the great strides made by Singapore’s Temasek and GIC. Some pundits put the assets of the two SWFs of this former post-colonial backwater, with no natural resources, in the vicinity of a whopping half a trillion dollars.
Earlier this year Abu Dhabi’s SWF pumped in $7.5 billion into Citigroup while China’s Investment Corporation took up 9.9 percent of the stakes of Merrill Lynch for a cool $5 billion.
The assets of SWFs today are estimated at $2-3 trillion and Morgan Stanley projects that these funds could reach an incredible $17.5 trillion within just ten years. Among the SWFs what strikes me most are the great strides made by Singapore’s Temasek and GIC. Some pundits put the assets of the two SWFs of this former post-colonial backwater, with no natural resources, in the vicinity of a whopping half a trillion dollars.
A few years ago a cabinet minister mentioned to me that our government was considering the creation of an SWF. I also remember another senior government official telling me that the possibility of investing Dhiraagu’s excess liquidity in the then burgeoning Indian telecom sector was discussed in the cabinet some ten years ago. Had we put in just $10 million - an amount that we could have easily afforded - it would have grown to $100 million today.
I cannot help wonder why Singapore excels at what it does so well while we lag behind grappling with rhetoric such as Islaahee agenda and Unity government. The few times we got adventurous (aviation, at first with PLO and then with Malaysian Helicopters; tea estate buyout by STO in Sri Lanka; Maldives National Oil Company etc) the experiences were so bitter that we prefer to talk about them only in hush-hush. Was there ever a time in independent Singapore’s history when human rights, democracy, and islahee agenda hampered their progress? (for record – I’m not against democracy or human rights)
6 comments:
the most big reason why Maldives canot go forward fast as Singapore is becaose the WHITE beach sand is VERRRRY VERY soft in maldives and so it is very dificult to WALK fast.
have u tried walking fast in soft fine maldives beachssandds?
the quick solution is to pour cement on the beach and provide a faster track for us to run and take this country to unimaginable reaches, and more mango trees to make AMbu majaa in a fair manner for every child, woman, boy and PAedophile in the Beloved country of MALDIVES>
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