The Ministry of
Finance explains why the GIC cannot reveal the exact amount it
manages. (Yahoo! file photo)
The Government
of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) cannot disclose
the exact amount of assets it manages and its annual profit and
loss because doing so would open Singapore to speculative attacks
on its currency, the Ministry
of Finance (MOF) said.
When such data are taken together with the disclosed figures of
the Monetary
Authority of Singaporeand Temasek
Holdings, the full size of the country’s financial reserves
would be made known, said director of corporate communications at
MOF Lim Bee Khim in a
letter published in a newspaper on Friday.
“This is against our national interest. It would make it easier for
speculators to attack the Singapore dollar during periods of
vulnerability,” she said, in response to a previous letter
from a readerpublished on Wednesday.
“Further, our reserves are a strategic asset, especially for a
small country with no natural resources or other assets,” said Lim.
“It would be unwise to reveal the exact amount at our disposal for
defending our currency or for use in an emergency.”
Lim, though, reiterated that the assets managed by the GIC were
“well over US$100 billion” (S$130 billion) in value.
In response to the reader’s queries about the measures GIC has
taken to prevent a collapse in the value of its invested assets,
should a crisis strike again, Lim said the organisation invests in
a “well-diversified portfolio”, with a balanced distribution of
asset classes.
She also said that the GIC reports its 20-year annualised real rate
of return, as well as its returns over five- and 10-year periods,
to show its performance in the interim.
In response to a further mention by the letter-writer of the
newly-appointed President Tony Tan’s role in the GIC, Lim said that
Tan does not oversee investment strategies of any of Singapore’s
investment arms, but instead approves appointments of board members
and CEOs to these organisations.
