2010

The recent cocoa industry meeting in Utrecht showed companies are still far from fulfilling their 2001 pledge to eliminate child labour in the sector. Industry leaders must take concrete action to remedy this, say pension fund managers Norges Bank Investment Management and APG Asset Management.

The story of Norwegian oil and gas effectively began with the discovery of the Ekofisk field on 23 December 1969. Today, some 60 fields are in production on the Norwegian continental shelf. Almost 40 years of petroleum production have generated net government revenues of around 4 000 billion kroner in 2009 prices. According to the Ministry of Finance, around 40 percent of the government’s net cash f low from petroleum production has so far been spent through the public budgets(1). Since 1996, the remainder has been transferred to the Government Pension Fund Global and invested in global equity and f ixed income instruments.

The Government Pension Fund Global has a number of distinguishing characteristics that can be used to generate an excess return on investments. Active management of the fund has helped to increase returns over the past 12 years, and also supports the performance of NBIM’s other tasks. At the same time, the fund’s costs for active management are relatively small, and there has been little change in risk due to active management.