Although there has been vivid academic debate as to what extent Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are motivated by political reasons, it is rather clear that countries can use state-owned investment funds as a tool of their foreign policy. Even Barack Obama, during his initial presidential campaign in 2008 commented: “I am obviously concerned if these… sovereign wealth funds are motivated by more than just market consideration and that’s obviously a possibility”.
This book looks at SWF activities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) to determine the main motives for SWF presence in CEE. Are the potential financial gains the only reason behind their investments? Are SWF activities in the region dangerous for the stability and security of the CEE countries?
The book is pioneering analyses of SWFs behaviour in the region, based on empirical data collected from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute Transaction Database, arguably the most comprehensive and authoritative resource tracking SWF investment behaviour globally.Rozdział pochodzi z książki: Political Players? Sovereign Wealth Funds’ Investments in Central and Eastern Europe, T. Kamiński (ed.), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2017.The main goal of this chapter is to analyze investment
policy of this state-controlled entity and provide the picture of its portfolio
investment in Eastern and Central Europe Countries. For this purpose,
the remainder of the chapter is organized in the following manner: in the next
part facts and figures about the fund are presented, than the investment
policy of the fund is described, after that the holdings of GPFG in Bulgaria,
the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania,
Slovakia are analyzed, and finally the political implications of these investments
are discussed with particular emphasis on the issue of risks. The chapter ends
with conclusions.This book was published in frames of project “Political significance of the Sovereign Wealth
Funds’ investments in the Central and Eastern Europe”. The project was financed by the Polish
National Science Centre (Decision no. DEC-2012/07/B/HS5/03797)
