Basic HTML Version
Public Wealth of Nations
Dag Detter recently co-authored a report “The Public
Wealth of Nations”, part of Citi’s Global Perspectives and
Solutions (GPS) series, based upon his published book
of the same name. Based on his economic research
and hands-on experience across many countries, Dag
argues that governments and citizens alike benefit when
publicly owned commercial assets are taken out of the
direct control of politicians and placed under professional
management in a ‘National Wealth Fund.’ Such a move
allows much-needed structural reforms in national
economies, improving government finances, bolstering
economic growth, and improving the fabric of
democratic institutions.
Dag has worked extensively as an investment banker and advisor within the corporate, real estate
and financial sector in Asia and Europe. He is an advisor to investors and specializes in identifying
under-performing high potential assets. He was formerly President of Stattum, the Swedish
government holding company, and a Director at Sweden’s Ministry of Industry, where he led the
first deep-rooted transformation of state commercial assets. This interview can also be viewed as
a video on our main research website, CitiVelocity. The full GPS report can be viewed on the
Citigroup website.
Dag Detter
Managing Partner
and Co-Founder of
Whetstone Solutions
AB and Fellow at the
Legatum Institute
Public Wealth of Nations
A conversation with Dag Detter on the value of global public assets
Dag, welcome to Citi.
Thank you.
And congratulations on the publication of
your
Public Wealth of Nations,
and thank you
for your co-authorship of our GPS report of
the same name.
It’s a pleasure.
Dag, in reading the report, this strikes me
as an emerging megatrend. You talk in the
report about a gold mine of public assets.
Could you explain what they are?
Yes, we normally think of state or public assets
as corporations that are visible to everybody,
but in reality the bulk of the value of such
assets are in real estate. Often this real estate
is held at the local government level and is not
as visible to the public, to investors, or even to
central governments.
David Walker
Managing Director
Head of Europe, Middle
East & Africa (EMEA)
Public Sector
Banking, Citi