Here’s some news:
- The California Public Employees Retirement System is getting closer to giving external managers two 'multi-asset class mandates' worth around $1 billion each. (This reminds me of Alaska's eCIO policy by the way.)
- Singapore’s Temasek has published its 2012 Review. It's full of interesting information.
- There’s some chatter about a new sovereign fund for Guatemala. Really?
- African private equity is looking increasingly respectable. Get there!
And here’s some beach reading:
Thomas Baunsgaard, Mauricio Villafuerte, Marcos Poplawski-Ribeiro, and Christine Richmond have a new paper entitled “Fiscal Frameworks for Resource Rich Developing Countries.” Here’s a blurb: “This paper takes stock of the economic performance of resource rich countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the past forty years... Looking forward we argue that the success of economic reforms in MENA rests on the ability of those countries to invest boldly in building inclusive institutions as well as high levels of human capacity in public administrations.”
Rabah Arezki and Mustapha K. Nabli have a new paper entitled “Natural Resources, Volatility, and Inclusive Growth: Perspectives from the Middle East and North Africa”. Here’s an excerpt: “This paper examines options for fiscal policy frameworks in resource rich developing countries. In doing so, it reassesses the role of the permanent income hypothesis, especially in low-income countries seeking to tackle infrastructure and development needs by scaling up growth-enhancing expenditure.”
Majid Al-Saidi has an interesting PhD thesis on SWFs and Oman’s State General Reserve Fund that’s really wort reading. It's entitled “Analytical Study of Sovereign Wealth Funds and Policies: A Case Study of Oman Sovereign Wealth Fund”. Here’s an interesting quote: “This thesis documents a study of the factors affecting the sustainable growth and performance of the Sovereign Wealth Funds... Results reveal that qualitative factors such as governance, policy and planning and quantitative factors such as structure, investment strategy and decision making ultimately affect the long term growth and success rate of global SWFs... Findings suggest that Oman SWF has issues of concern in many aspects such as governance, transparency, accountability, investment strategy, organisational structure, asset allocation, updating laws and policy mechanisms; thus requiring overall restructuring and transformation of Oman SWF into a professional organisation.”
Enjoy your weekend!
