Due to domestic economic turmoil and financial crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it took time before the idea of a fund was turned into actual savings. The first allocation – some USD 400 million – was not made until 1996. Since then, the Fund has grown rapidly in size. As you have already seen, the Fund’s assets are currently valued at around USD 350 billion. The Fund is expected to grow further in coming years, and may double in 5-10 years. The Fund was established as a tool to support prudent management of Norway’s petroleum wealth. One purpose is to shield the non-oil economy from price fluctuations. The Fund is also a long-term savings instrument. It will help to cope with future financial commitments linked to an ageing population. Accumulation of capital in the Fund reflects the depletion of a non-renewable resource, which is exchanged for financial assets through the Fund’s investments. By setting up the Fund, it became possible to establish a path for  2  BIS Review 58/2009  production of oil and gas that is independent of the profile for petroleum revenue spending. The alternative to a fund would have been to directly regulate production by putting a conservative upper limit on annual extraction. Furthermore, to effectively shield the non-oil economy, and to make sure that private sector investment decisions could be made independently of the public sector’s saving of petroleum wealth, the Fund is only invested abroad.
Besides the obvious economic crimes such as drug trafficking and corruption, governments also need to fight against economic and financial crimes in every other shape and form. Any type of such crimes can generate feelings of resentment about an unfair society, not just the drug trafficking cases. Stock price manipulation, insider trading, or tax evasion, which even though do not directly harm people's lives, can still make people feel slighted. This is especially so if these white-collar perpetrators are quite influential or are close friends with politicians or the administrations. In all these cases, the role model set by the government is the most important element in winning people's confidence that the government is truly and sincerely committed to fighting against economic and financial crimes. If the perpetrators are members of the government, swift and decisive actions taken against them will make society confident in the government's policy on this issue and thus encourage law enforcement officers to fearlessly do the right things. What I have been talking about so far concerns economic crimes within a country. Things get more complicated and much more difficult to combat when it comes to cross-border economic crimes. These require close cooperation of law enforcement authorities in every country. Today's United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice is a good example of the collaboration effort at the international level. To combat transnational crime, the willingness to collaborate is strong when authorities hold the same view on such crimes.