SINGAPORE: Presidential hopeful Ng Kok Song, a former Chief Investment Officer of the GIC, spoke in a recent interview about why keeping the number of the country’s reserves a secret is important.
Mr Ng posted a series of video clips on his Instagram account wherein he tackled a number of topics, including financial literacy, investing, the reserves and meditation, which is one of his passions.
In talking about the reserves, he underlined that the reserves are part of the country’s overall defense, calling them Singapore’s financial defence.
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He captioned his post, “Some have asked why we cannot reveal how much we have in the reserves. Our reserves are our financial defence. In a war, you do not reveal to your enemy how much resources you have. Similarly, keeping the value of our reserves a secret is strategically important for Singapore. #ngkoksong2023 #unitedforourfuture #finance #adulting #secrets”
On the need for secrecy regarding Singapore’s reserves, he said the following:
“It is a very strange thing that when you’re confronting a hostile force, an enemy who wants to do damage to you, do you tell your enemy how much resources you have?
That is why we keep our resources a secret. Singaporeans say, ‘Why can’t you tell us how much reserves we have?’ Our reserves are our financial defence; they are part of our total defence for Singapore.
We have our military defence. We have our social defence. We must have our financial defence. The more reserves we have, the more people will think twice or three times to undermine the stability of our currency.
That’s what I mean when I say the reserves are strategically important for Singapore.”
Mr Ng was with the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) for 42 years, serving as Group Chief Investment Officer from 2007 until his retirement in 2013.
He is a 2012 awardee of the Meritorious Service Medal from the Singapore Government.
Prior to working at GIC, he was with the Monetary Authority of Singapore from 1972 to 1986 and began his career at the Ministry of Finance in 1970. /TISG
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