World Economics - The journal of current economic analysis and policy
Welcome 11 September 2010 Search
Article Overview
Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Funds The political risk of overseas investments Friedrich Wu
Volume 9, Number 3, 2008, pages 97 - 122
This paper examines Singapore’s two sovereign wealth funds (SWFs)-the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore (GIC) and Temasek Holdings (Temasek)—and the political risks which they are exposed to in their overseas investments. Wu argues that Temasek has hitherto exposed itself to a greater level of political risk than GIC, but is in turn rewarded with a higher rate of returns on its investments. At the same time, he finds that political risk is an inevitable challenge for SWFs in general. In fact, as worldwide opinion has turned towards demanding greater transparency and accountability from SWFs, the political risks faced by SWFs have correspondingly risen. The paper seeks to throw some light on this issue by undertaking a case study of Singapore’s two SWFs, which are consistently ranked among the global top 10 SWFs by assets, and have attracted much worldwide attention in recent times as a result of some of their politically controversial overseas investments.




Not a subscriber? - Click here to subscribe to World Economics today.

FREE TRIAL
Sign up for a one week trial and view a sample issue now


FREE CONTENT ALERTS
To subscribe to our free 'Content Alerts' please fill in your details below:

First name:


Last name:


Email:

Copyright © 2010 Economic and Financial Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. Home |  Site Map |  Terms of Use |  Privacy Policy