Banks and Investment

The Minister of Finance II said:

"The banking industry, in this country today, sits on over $13 billion in
public deposits, much of which invariably end up being invested offshore and
as these deposits represent a vital capital resource of the country, ideally
it should be deployed for the country's benefit"

I absolutely agree with him! And I also support his encouragement for the financial institutions to:

"...shift towards corporate lending and investment banking and wealth management
and other fee-based activities would be heeded and responded to not just in
letter but also in spirit by all financial institutions in the country."

(here for full news)

However, I cannot help feeling envious towards Malaysia which has the SME Bank or Thailand which also has its own SME Development Bank (which incidently are the subsidiaries of their respective Finance Ministries) to look (solely) after their SMEs' development needs.


Salaam.