Retirees receive pension at a post office. Photo: VNAAs many as 95 percent of Vietnamese labourers are worried about poverty and having insufficient funds once retired, according to a recent survey by the Global Aging Institute (GAI) in collaboration with Prudential Corporation Asia.
The survey, dubbed “From Challenge to Opportunity”, unveiled its findings from a major study on retirement attitudes and expectations in East Asia. The data uncovered that in all 10 markets, the share of workers who have the concern is as large, or larger, than the share of retirees.
An enormous majority of respondents in every market – ranging from 77 percent in China to 90 percent in Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the Philippines – agree that the government should require workers to save more for their own retirement.
In most markets, a majority of respondents also agreed that the government should raise the retirement age, increase taxes to offer a basic pension benefit to the elderly in financial need and require workers to contribute more to pay for government pension programmes, it said.
Dr. Richard Jackson, Founder and President of GAI, said t he findings show that retirees in East Asia find themselves at a difficult juncture. Traditional family support networks have been weakening, yet adequate government and market substitutes have not yet been put in place.
In every market, the share of modern workers who expect to receive income during retirement from insurance and annuity products and/or stocks, bonds or mutual funds is rising.
In China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Thailan, between 60 and 80 percent of workers expect to receive income from these financial assets.
At the low end of the spectrum are the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, where less than 25 percent of today’s workers will turn to those options for financial stability.
Donald Kanak, Chairman of the Prudential Corporation Asia, said that rapid aging in Asia is an irreversible trend and poses many challenges for today’s societies, adding that closing the growing gap in old-age protection requires public and private sector solutions.
Meanwhile, General Secretary of the Vietnam Insurers Association Phung Dac Loc noted that the number of people purchasing insurance in Vietnam exceeds 10 million, who support 2.3 million retirees. He also warned of the risk of insurance fund collapses in 2032.-VNA
