Columbia to Unveil SWF This Year

(August 2, 2010) — Incoming Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry has said that Columbia will have a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) this year to focus on investment instruments abroad.

The incoming finance minister is studying how the fund will be managed, indicating that it could be controlled by the central bank or another state institution. The SWF’s focus on foreign investment instruments would help to thwart the rise of the peso by lowering the impact of petrodollars coming into Columbia, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“The fund will be one of the first laws that we will want to pass,” said Echeverry, according to the WSJ. He noted that as a campaign pledge from President-elect Juan Manuel Santos, the fund’s creation will be at the forefront of his agenda once he assumes office on August 7. Echeverry told reporters that it’s essential for Columbia to have the tools ready to address a boom in investment in oil and mining. He said he expected a surge in revenue from these industries in the years ahead.

The creation of the new fund comes after a string of constitutional reforms to create a source of revenue for the fund, including changes in the law that oversees the distribution of oil and mining royalties to regional governments and fiscal rules limiting increases in public spending.

In recent news, Echeverry met with former Chilean Finance Minister Andres Velasco to discuss the experience of Chile, the world’s largest copper producer and exporter, in its creation of a SWF. “Latin American history is saddled with periods of bonanza that were followed by steep crises,” Echeverry said to the WSJ. “That’s something we want to avoid.”