SINGAPORE - "We are in a prolonged environment of very low investment returns... the global economy and global financial markets are wrestling with the aftermath of the global financial crisis," Mr Ng Kok Song told a conference on Wednesday.
"Be prepared for much more modest returns, if not negative returns, going forward."
Mr Ng said that monetary easing by central banks after the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 had kept interest rates low, and thereby boosted stock markets.
But after factoring in inflation, real investment yields on cash and on bonds could in fact be less than zero.
"They are negative, and they are at 100-year lows," Mr Ng said, adding that he thought it could take up to five years for interest rates to "get back to normal".
The low yields mean that some investors may be "desperately" searching for higher returns, he noted.
"This is like picking up pennies on a railway track, oblivious to the dangers of the oncoming train," he said.
Mr Ng is now an adviser to GIC and its chair of global investments, and no longer plays an executive role. He was speaking at the Credit Suisse Global Megatrends Conference held at the W Singapore hotel in Sentosa Cove.
The keynote speaker at the conference was Indonesian tycoon Mochtar Riady, founder and chairman of conglomerate the Lippo Group, who spoke in a mixture of English and Mandarin.
Mr Riady told the nearly 400 attendees that investors and firms could look for new opportunities in the information and communications industry, adding that Singapore's growth depended on its "human resources".
When asked for his secret to making money, the Indonesian tycoon quipped: "My secret is that I know I don't know. I have to look for professionals to run the business."
This article was published on May 2 in The Straits Times.
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