Institutional Excellence Awards 2020: How GPIF, Poba and GIC stood tall AsianInvestor reveals how Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, Public Officials Benefit Association of Korea and Singapore's GIC stood out from their country rivals. The seventh annual Institutional Excellence Awards encompassed one of the most challenging periods for investment in living memory. Standout asset owners during this period have had to be nimble and responsive as conditions sharply deteriorated in late February and March, only to offer investment opportunities in fits and starts from April even as the global economic environment continued to struggle and a US presidential election reached its crescendo.