
Temasek: Our share of Singapore economy only about 10%
The investment firm made the clarification amidst “mistaken claims” that Temasek’s stake in the Singapore economy could be almost 60%.
Stephen Forshaw, Managing Director of Temasek’s Corporate Affairs, said they are puzzled by the recent claims which are apparently inaccurate.
Temasek's statement of clarification elaborated:
Gross Domestic Product or GDP measures the output of an economy. In March 2001, the Singapore Department of Statistics (DOS) published a study showing the 1998 GDP contributions by various entities. Foreign owned companies contributed just below 42%. Non-government related Singapore owned companies contributed over 33% of Singapore GDP. Government-linked companies contributed 13% to Singapore GDP: majority owned government-linked companies contributed 9%; companies which had minority government related ownership of 20-50% contributed under 4%. Temasek portfolio companies in Singapore are a subset of government-linked companies, and thus contributed less than 13% of the Singapore GDP in 1998. The Singapore economy has since grown and become more diversified. Temasek has itself divested several major businesses such as the power generation companies. Thus, we expect Temasek portfolio companies to account for 10%, or less, of Singapore GDP today. |