Parable of the day
The best argument to support the creation of the MWF is the biblical Parable of the Talents which is one of the most recognizable and commonly quoted parables in finance.
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Daily TribuneThe best argument to support the creation of the MWF is the biblical Parable of the Talents which is one of the most recognizable and commonly quoted parables in finance.
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While the debate rages over the proposal to create the country's first sovereign wealth fund, much of the apprehensions, mostly fueled by destructive politics, are coming from fears that public funds may be mismanaged.
The proponents of the Maharlika Wealth Fund bill thus, need a lot of work to inform the public the way that they convinced House members of the necessity of pooling resources to maximize the benefit to the public.
Economic managers primarily those with a good background in investment banking regret the squandered opportunity as the economy grows.
Finance Secretary and former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Benjamin Diokno said the Philippines has more than sufficient foreign exchange reserves that can be used as seed money for the Maharlika Wealth Fund.
There's "too much ammunition," Diokno said.
The country's foreign exchange reserves raised from remittances of Filipinos working overseas and the business process outsourcing boom reached $94.1 billion in end-October and peaked at $110 billion in December 2020.
The bill's proponents are Speaker Martin Romualdez and Senior Deputy Majority Leader Sandro Marcos
Under the bill, the BSP will have to allot to the fund the equivalent of 10 percent of OFW remittances and another 10 percent from earnings of outsourcing companies.
The head of the state pension fund Government Service Insurance System Wick Veloso who has more than 30 years of experience in banking and the capital markets considers MWF as a long-term investment which means it will continuously generate income for the GSIS members.
Michael Batu, assistant professor at the University of The Fraser Valley's Department of Economics, said proceeds from the MWF investments can be used to fund the infrastructure buildup instead of relying on foreign borrowings.
It will also strengthen the pension system as more Filipino workers grow old.
At the moment, the pension system is plodding through despite the relatively young population which means more workers contributing to it than those collecting pensions.
A good proposal to reduce the doubts is that of Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion, also Private Sector Advisory Council jobs group lead, who said the government may get big names in the business community as partners to manage the MWF.
Concepcion said the fund can be a public-private partnership project.
"If President Marcos believes in public-private partnerships, this is one way to do it. I believe all the directors of that fund have to come from the private sector who are well-respected and have a great track record of performance," Concepcion said.
The best argument to support the creation of the MWF is the biblical Parable of the Talents which is one of the most recognizable and commonly quoted parables in finance.
In summary, the parable said those fearful and merely hid their money should not expect to be rewarded.
In the parable, it was declared that "if you are faithful with a few things, you will be faithful with many."
When businessmen talks of fortune favoring the bold, they should be talking of the biblical passage as it applies to MWF.
