Press Releases

The United States, Abu Dhabi and Singapore have jointly released a set of Policy Principles for Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) and countries receiving SWF investment. The Policy Principles are aimed at contributing to the work of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in developing voluntary best practices for SWFs and inward investment regimes in countries receiving investments, respectively.

The joint statement and Policy Principles are appended in Annex A (228 KB).

The joint release of the Policy Principles came after a meeting in Washington D.C. on 20 March 2008 between Mr Henry Paulson, Secretary of the US Treasury, Singapore's Minister for Finance Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam and His Excellency Hamad al Hurr al Suwaidi, Member of Abu Dhabi Executive Council, to discuss issues pertaining to SWFs. Minister Tharman was accompanied by Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, Deputy Chairman and Executive Director of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), as well as staff from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and GIC.

SWFs will continue to grow in significance. As long term players with little or no leverage, they play a constructive and stabilising role in global financial markets. Singapore believes that an open investment environment is critical in a globalised economy and is in the interests of all parties. We will continue to contribute proactively to international efforts on developing voluntary best practices for SWFs and countries receiving investments.

Ministry of Finance