US to stay prime focus for Singapore investor GIC

SINGAPORE: The United States will remain a "prime" investment destination for the giant Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) despite forays into emerging economies, its deputy chairman said. Tony Tan, speaking in New York on Wednesday, said the United States remained a key market despite the increasing importance of emerging economies like China and Russia in the aftermath of the latest global financial crisis. "The US will remain a global power, and more importantly a leader in terms of ideas, technology and the depth and liquidity of its financial markets," Tan stated in his speech, copies of which were released in Singapore on Thursday. "Despite the shift in economic power, and GIC's desire to take advantage of opportunities in the emerging world, the US will continue to be a prime destination for GIC's investments for years to come." While GIC does not publicly give a value on its holdings, the US-based Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute ranked GIC as the seventh largest in the world with an asset portfolio valued at $247.5 billion as of March 31, 2010. Tan, who is also GIC's executive director, said "more than a third" of the fund's investments are in the United States and that it has more than 100 professional staff in offices across the country. "America is likely to remain the single most important source of global prosperity for many years to come," he said. GIC investments in the United States constituted 43 percent of its global portfolio as of March 31, 2010, according to its website. However, Tan warned that the United States still faced "daunting medium to longer-term challenges" such as increasing public debt, a lagging education system and increasing insularity. He also called on the United States to remain open to foreign immigration and investment. "With the US open and receptive attitude to foreign investments, GIC will continue to invest in America," he said. Set up in 1981, GIC is one of Singapore's two sovereign wealth funds, along with Temasek Holdings, and invests the country's massive foreign reserves of well over $100 billion.