Tag Archives: SWF

For example, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund had a simple total return of 25.64 per cent (not in S$ like Temasek) the last three years plus the first quarter of this year (not exactly the same 3-year time period as Temasek).

Ah Kow: Wa lau eh. Singapore SWFs damn sia sway. Can anyhow claim make a lot of money but no need to show any proof. Ahmad: GIC is worse then Temasek because it no need to show even one single investment using our CPF. PAP create law say no need to show how money invested then Singaporeans bodoh bodoh repeat like parrot “law say no need to show investment”. Ha ha.

This gets a little technical but important, so the writer begs readers’ indulgence. This report (www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-05/temasek-says-singapore-not-greece-in-s-p-critique-asean-credit) highlighted what appears to be a spat between Temasek and the rating agency Standard & Poor (S&P) over the latter’s decision to introduce Standalone Rating to industrial holding companies (IHC).

Temasek manages $223,000,000,000 of our reserves, most of which originated from our CPF. link Temasek invests (or reinvests the returns) in risky assets such as foreign energy/resources and hedge funds. How some of these investments performed have not been disclosed. Since Temasek funds belong to EVERY citizen (excluding new citizens), it is only right for the PAP to distribute part of the returns to individual citizens and not use it to supplement the budget.

I was quite shaken by my trip to Parliament yesterday to watch the CPF “debate” . There wasn’t really any debate at all. Our Finance Minister, Tharman made a speech that was full of irrelevancies and gaffes and what he did admit to worried me considerably. I sat in the spectators gallery where it was noticeable that the MIW were MIA . Thank goodness that Eugene Tan is there to remind the Speaker and Deputy Speaker how parliament works. Even some WP MPs were missing and came in an hour after the debate had started.

The media reported today (7 Jul) that Temasek Holdings would likely be reporting a lower performance in terms of its returns for last financial year. This is due to the lacklustre performance by Singapore stocks and Chinese bank counters over the past year. Presently, Chinese banks and Singapore stocks make up a major component of Temasek’s portfolio. According to CIMB Research, Temasek may have increased the value of its holdings by about 4 percent to a record $224 billion in the year to March 31.

Despite Singapore government claims to the contrary, the CPF is imposing enormous implicit taxes or costs on Singaporean savers. If the average Singaporean had earned the average Singaporean wage since 1980 and saved the amount required by law but earned the GIC long term average rather than CPF interest, the average Singaporean would have approximately $850,000 SGD in the bank. This is approximately $300,000 more than they would have earned with the same amount of savings in a CPF account.

Despite repeated calls for the government to improve its transparency on the management of our reserves, only a handful of people know the actual amount invested by the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Pte Ltd (GIC). Decisions on a few hundred billion dollars of OUR money (I will term ‘our reserves’ as ‘our money’ as it means just that) must not continue to be shrouded in secrecy. Why do citizens have NO SAY in OUR money with our MPs remaining silent, playing along with the few in control? This is not how democracy works.