In brief: The National Provident Fund has assured the Acting Minister for Finance and Treasury, Gordon Darcy Lilo that its off-shore investments are safe. |
| The National Provident Fund has assured the Acting Minister for Finance and Treasury, Gordon Darcy Lilo that its off-shore investments are safe. The National Provident Fund advised Mr Lilo about the impacts on workers’ savings because of the current international financial crisis. The Board and Management of the NPF has provided a full briefing to the Acting Minister of Finance and Treasury, the Governor of the Central Bank of Solomon Islands, and Senior Officials of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury on the current status of the Board’s offshore investments portfolio. A statement from the Ministry of Finance and Treasury says in line with its investments guidelines, the Fund has invested up to 30-percent of its investments portfolio offshore in cash deposits with ANZ Bank in Singapore and in equity exposures in USA, Australia, Europe, and Papua New Guinea. It says by investing outside Solomon Islands as well as inside the country, NPF has spread its risks and ensures that workers get the best possible returns on their important savings. The statement says the strategy NPF takes is a stable one, spreading investment in a range of different products to reduce the risk. About half of the offshore investments are in safe bank deposits while the remainder is spread between an investment in the Bank of South Pacific and several different managed funds. It says the value of NPF’s offshore holdings goes up and down because of movements on the International markets. But these are long term investments so the important issue is how they perform over many years, not in any particular month. source : SIBC |
