Qatar Investment Authority: Minister says sovereign funds are transparent

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Qatar Investment Authority: Minister says sovereign funds are transparent

A senior official in the Qatar government has hit back at claims that sovereign wealth funds lack transparency. Finance minister Yousef Hussein Kamal says that his country’s fund, Qatar Investment Authority, is an open, long-term investor, which should be welcomed by other governments.

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Yousef Hussein Kamal

"The receiver can see me as an investor or as a political appointee. Which way they think is their job, not mine"


Yousef Hussein Kamal, Qatar Investment Authority

"We are transparent," says Kamal, who is also general secretary of the supreme council for economic affairs and investment, a body that oversees QIA. He adds: "If I am going to invest money [other governments] should welcome me." He says he is unconcerned about the criticism that QIA and other sovereign wealth funds have received regarding their transparency.

"The receiver can see me as an investor or as a political appointee. Which way they think is their job, not mine," he says in an interview with Euromoney.

He also accuses the critics of sovereign wealth funds of hypocrisy. "At the same time [as criticizing] important people from [other] governments they are saying to us ‘please invest in our country’," says Kamal.

Sovereign wealth funds have come under fire in recent months, most notably from the EU and the US Treasury. Last month, Joaquin Almunia, European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, said that these funds’ investments would be restricted in Europe unless they were more transparent.


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