Singapore's National Reserves

Watched this yet? They filmed our nation’s secret vault that had never been broadcasted before, they used blindfolds, and left behind all tracking devices so the location remains hidden -- on a mission to discover how much is in our nation’s reserves.

CNA's Singapore Reserves Revealed series gave an exclusive peek into Singapore’s treasure chests, featuring interviews with insiders and leaders.

The series looked at:

1. Where exactly Singapore’s reserves are invested, and how much is in the reserves;

2. How this “inheritance” almost didn’t exist;

3. The inner workings of GIC and Temasek, and people who are responsible for growing the reserves;

4. The two rare occasions when the Singapore government made huge drawdowns of the reserve; and

5. How the reserves fuel many of the systems that make Singapore tick like clockwork, from keeping supermarket prices stable, to growing the CPF retirement funds of Singaporeans, to creating more space in land-scarce Singapore.

The series showed that: (A) There are sound policies governing the use of our reserves

Our national reserves — often described as our rainy day fund, an endowment for the future, and even our country’s “secret weapon” — have made it possible for Singapore to emerge from the 2009 global financial crisis relatively unscathed, and allowed Singapore to be the first in Asia to secure the Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our reserves are not just for emergencies, they also provide for today’s needs that benefit all of us right now. This is because our reserves are used in a variety of ways, including managing the cost of imported goods by intervening in foreign exchange markets, or funding public infrastructure and land reclamation projects, such as the Tuas Port. When we use past reserves to create new land, the land is also protected as past reserves - it’s essentially a conversion of assets from finance to land, and then back to finance.

Under the Net Investment Returns Contribution (NIRC) framework, the government can spend up to 50 per cent of the net investment returns on net assets invested by GIC, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Temasek – the three entities that manage and invest Singapore’s reserves – and up to 50 per cent of the net investment income derived from past reserves from the remaining assets.

(B) We need to keep saving: our reserves are not growing faster than our needs

There is misconception that since we have “so much” in the reserves, we can take more from the NIRC. But the fact is, our national reserves are growing at a rate that barely keeps pace with economic growth, and the investment returns being channelled back into the national reserves is key to building up our country's coffers in the long run. If we don’t have anything going back to the reserves, the value of the reserves will diminish over time.

Catch the series here to dig deep into a treasure trove of information on our nation’s reserves and why we must safeguard it.

📸: Exclusive footage of the vault (Credit to: CNA YouTube)!

🔗Watch the Singapore Reserves Revealed series here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbnMTcZEga8SQpk1tO3NQjP79rIqkj2Iv

#WatchThisYet #Singapore #Reserves #SingaporeReservesRevealed #GIC #MAS #Temasek

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