Sovereign Wealth Funds and Long-Term Development Finance : Risks and Opportunities

Gelb, Alan ; Tordo, Silvana ; Halland, Havard ; Arfaa, Noora ; Smith, Gregory

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCOUNTING;    AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS;    ALTERNATIVE ASSET;    ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT;    ASSET CLASS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6776
RP-ID  :  WPS6776

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Sovereign wealth funds represent a largeand growing pool of savings. An increasing number of thesefunds are owned by natural resource exporting countries andhave a variety of objectives, including intergenerationalequity and macroeconomic stabilization. Traditionally, thesefunds have invested in external assets, especiallysecurities traded in major markets. But the persistentinfrastructure financing gap in developing countries hasmotivated some governments to encourage their sovereignwealth funds to invest domestically. This paper proposessome basic elements of a conceptual framework to create asystem of checks and balances to help ensure that thesovereign wealth funds do not undermine macroeconomicmanagement or become a vehicle for politically driven"investments." First, the risks and opportunitiesof domestic investment by sovereign wealth funds areanalyzed. Central issues are the relationship of sovereignwealth fund financing to the budget process and to theprocurement systems of sector ministries, as well as theestablishment of appropriate benchmarks and safeguards toensure the integrity of investment decisions. The paperargues that a well-governed sovereign wealth fund, with asound mandate and professional management and staffing, canpossibly improve the quality of the public investmentprogram. But its mandate should not duplicate that of othergovernment institutions with investment mandates, such asthe budget, the national development bank, the investmentauthority, and state-owned enterprises. Establishing ruleson the type of investment (for example, commercial and/orquasi-commercial) and its modalities (for example, nocontrolling stakes, leveraging private investment) is oneway to ensure separation between the activities of thesovereign wealth fund and those of other institutions. Thecritical issue remains that of limiting the sovereign wealthfund's investment scope to that appropriate for awealth fund. If investments that generate quasi-marketreturns are permitted, the size of the home bias should beclearly stipulated and these investments should be reported separately.