SWF Radar AbuDhabi

Bloomberg reports that, “Dubai may need help from Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates government to finance a surge in borrowing that paid for the world’s tallest tower, palm tree- shaped man-made islands and stakes in banks worldwide. ”

ArabianBusiness.com reports that, “Member[s] of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) must ditch their currency pegs to the dollar in the face of soaring oil prices and the plummeting value of the US currency, the Abu Dhabi Department of Planning and Economy (DPE) said on Saturday.”

Forbes reports that, “The emirates of Qatar and Abu Dhabi have signed up to a $2 billion 50-50 joint venture, according to a source close to the situation, which will bring together the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company. Although there are no official details as yet, the new fund is understood to be twice as big as the joint ventures that Qatar set up with Dubai and Indonesia last year.”

Daniel Altman writes in his Managing Globalization blog at the International Herald Tribune that, “I think what's going on is more politics than economics. Washington is trying to send two signals. First, they want to tell the public that they're being vigilant, making sure those pesky foreigners don't take control of the American economy. Second, Washington wants to tell other, perhaps less friendly governments that it's keeping an eye on their investments - and that Washington might someday try to secure similar promises from them, too. Is it worthwhile? It probably doesn't hurt, but, then again, investment protectionism can be a slippery slope.”

Yousef Al Otaiba, director of international affairs for the government of Abu Dhabi, outlines Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth plans in the Wall Street Journal and writes that, “In a world thirsty for liquidity, receiving nations should be mindful of the signals sent through protectionist rhetoric and rash regulation.”

Thomson Financial reports that, “The US Treasury and the governments of Singapore and Abu Dhabi said today they have agreed on a set of principles for Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) investing and receiving SWF investments, emphasizing including transparency, non-politicization and avoidance of protectionism.”

Reuters reports that, “U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to meet on Thursday with government officials from Abu Dhabi and Singapore to discuss issues surrounding sovereign wealth funds, the Treasury said.”

Reuters writes that, “Singapore, along with Norway and Abu Dhabi, has been asked by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help set disclosure benchmarks for sovereign wealth funds, a local newspaper reported on Thursday, quoting Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. ‘We’ve put up certain ideas. They’re considering it. They are using us and Abu Dhabi and the Norwegians as benchmarks, to get us to set benchmarks for the rest,’ the Straits Times quoted Lee, who is also chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), as saying in Riyadh.”

AME Info writes that, “McKinsey Managing Director Kito de Boer estimates that the city will have accumulated an oil surplus of $800bn from 2005 to 2020. He told the [MEED] conference [this week]: ‘Abu Dhabi will have the highest concentration of wealth on the planet.’ Actually there is no need to project into the future. Abu Dhabi is already this rich with a rumored $850bn in its sovereign wealth funds and 10 per cent of the world’s oil reserves.”