In the decade since the Asian currency crisis, emerging-market countries as a group have shifted from net foreign debt to net foreign assets positions. This has brought about a global sea-change to thinking about how sovereign wealth should be invested, who should invest it and how investment decisions should be linked, if at all, to sovereign liabilities.

What changed? The Asian crisis was a wake-up call. Countries have realised they had to stand on their own feet. That meant becoming better