Chapter 4 | Page 150 activities such as mining, oil and gas, railways, electricity, telecommunication and general trading. The revenue from these sources often goes into the State budget or is managed through sovereign wealth funds. A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is a ‘government-owned fund that invests globally in real and financial assets or in alternative investments such as private equity or hedge funds’.47 The current market size of SWFs is estimated to be around US$2.5 to 3 trillion, which is expected to grow to between US$10 to15 trillion by 2015.48 In relation to the huge resources under SWFs, some scholars have expressed concerns about mismanagement of investments in pursuit of political or economic power objectives, exacerbation of financial protectionism, financial market turmoil, and conflicts among countries with substantial SWFs on issues of regulatory treatment.49 Despite these concerns, the emergence of international regulatory mechanisms such as the Santiago Principles is likely to have a positive effect on the management and impact of these SWFs in the future.50 The main idea behind SWFs is to channel revenue from natural resources and other public sector enterprises into productive social development programmes. National financial reserves are another potential resource that can be used to enhance State revenue, particularly when other revenue sources are 47 International Monetary Fund, Global Financial Stability Report: Moving from Liquidity- to Growth-Driven Markets (International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC, 2014), <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/FT/GFSR/2014/01/pdf/text.pdf>. IMF classifies SWF as stabilisation funds; savings or future generations funds; reserve investment corporations; strategic development funds; and pension reserve funds. 48 Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, Source on Sovereign Wealth Funds and Public Institutional Investors <http://www.swfinstitute.org/>. Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, Australian Future Fund, Chinese Investment Corporation are some examples of such wealth funds, which further invest in different business undertakings. 49 Edwin M Truman, Sovereign Wealth Funds: Threat or Salvation? (Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, D.C., 2010). 50 See for example, Richard A Epstein and Amanda M Rose, 'The Regulation of Sovereign Wealth Funds: The Virtues of Going Slow' (2012) 76(111) University of Chicago Law Review; Peter Kunzel, Cornelia Hammer and Iva Petrova, 'Sovereign Wealth Funds: Current Institutional and Operational Practices' (IMF Working Paper WP/08/254, International Monetary Fund).