Several international development partners and foreign institutions have expressed their willingness to provide technical assistance to the Philippine government in preparing the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said yesterday.
DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum the government is conducting some benchmarking activities with existing sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) on how to structure and operate the planned MIF.
The budget chief said the government has also received commitment from international partners to help out with the drafting of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR).
“…we’re going to benchmark with progressive or developed SWFs. In Singapore, we met with Temasek and GIC for benchmarking,” Pangandaman said.
Temasek is a global investment company headquartered in Singapore, while GIC is a global long-term investor that manages Singapore’s foreign reserves.
Pangandaman said some SWFs do everything in-house, some outsource their activities and will provide recommendations to the Board, while others do a hybrid of the two.
“When you create an SWF, what is important is the organization, the structure and the people that we’re going to get,” Pangandaman said.
“They (development partners) will help us in some sort of technical assistance on how to build the structure of the fund,” she added.
As for the drafting of the IRR, the budget chief said among other international development partners, the IMF and the World Bank have expressed willingness to help.
