AFDC Delegate Attended the APEC Core Group Meeting on Aging and Public Finance
The core group meeting on Aging and Public Finance under the APEC aging initiative was held in
The government basic pension system plays a critical role in all the Asia-Pacific economies. As a result, how to make public finance sustainable has long been an important issue. Issues covered at the workshop include: the role of public finance in pension system, how to improve the existing pension system in each economy as well as how to sustain public finance. The delegates agreed upon the significant role played by public finance in providing government mandatory pension system and in increasing its coverage and replacement rate.
Population aging brings about increased fiscal burden to the government. In particular, during the time of current financial crisis when fiscal deficits of all economies have been greatly widened, it’s necessary for government to alleviate the pressure on public finance and make it sustainable by improving pension system. The measures taken mainly include: raise legal retirement age and labor participation rate especially those rates of female participants and senior people; increase the linkage between contributions and yields in basic pension system; develop the second and third pillar in pension system to ease the pressure on public finance; strengthen international cooperation and facilitate the free mobility of labor force among different economies in the region.
This core group meeting concluded the APEC aging initiative. AFDC has attended all the meetings under this initiative and presented papers which offer policy suggestions to the pension system development of APEC economies.
