If Taiwan opts for the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), it should be established independently of the central bank, bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) said yesterday.
Fielding questions at the Legislative Yuan, Perng said that the existing four major state-run funds and the National Development Fund are SWFs in nature because they are all state-owned investment funds.
“The best policy here and now is to integrate the four major funds and the National Development Fund into a bigger one, instead of establishing a new SWF,” Perng said.
In response to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao’s (賴士葆) question on whether the central bank supported the way that Singapore established its SWF, Perng said: “The Singaporean model is a good one to emulate.”
He added that before establishing its SWF, Singapore enacted a law.
The Singaporean government then established a SWF with funds raised via the issuance of state bonds and in turn used the SWF to invest overseas, he said.
The bank governor added that both the establishment of SWFs and overseas investment with their funds should be in line with IMF regulations.
Perng dismissed as groundless a recent report by the Chinese-language China Times, which alleged that, when asked his opinion on the subject, he had categorically ruled out using the country’s foreign exchange reserves to establish a new SWF.
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