Should increase the retirement age from 2025

Mr. Bui Sy Loi, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Social Issues of the National Assembly.

Sir, there are concerns that increasing the retirement age will let the leaders cling their power and position. What is your opinion about this?

I personally think that people with intellect, well-trained, able to contribute, the extension of their retirement age will benefit society. At present, although the law does not apply to increase the working age before retirement widely, there are provisions to extend the working age before retirement for researchers and lecturers with high qualifications (PhD, Associate Professor, Professor, Senior Expert, Senior Researcher, and Senior Lecturer). Accordingly, the retirement age of Associate Professors and Professors are 67 years for men and 62 years for women, 70 years for men and 65 years for women respectively. These are the rules that have a very positive meaning, both for the individual scientist and the lecturer to have the opportunity to continue to contribute, create and benefit the state and society as they continue to exploit the intellectual power of these people.

It is my observation that increasing the retirement age is not just about benefiting a group of leaders since there are many qualified people who do not want to spend a lot of time working. Leaders are only a few, not all are leaders. Because many non-state workers can still have jobs, they can still have higher incomes. And among those who want to be have a prolonged working life, there are many with true talents, but they also have to admit that there is a great majority who do not want to get out of the State pensionable age limit. But those who have the capacity do not want to prolong the retirement age in the market mechanism.

I have to affirm that increasing the retirement age is very necessary and objective since the establishment of the country until now the retirement age has been defined as male 60 and female 55 years old, while the current life expectancy age of Vietnamese people has raised to 73-74 years old. At the same time, Vietnam is at the peak of the golden population, and for some time Vietnam will have to face the aging of the population, so increasing the retirement age is a preparation for the future.

All the information related to increasing the retirement age to break the social insurance fund is not correct. Because social insurance is implemented according to the principles of contribution and enjoyment, you contribute less then you enjoy less and vice versa, and guaranteed by the State.

Increasing the retirement age, increasing the time to participate in social insurance is very necessary but it must have time, have a roadmap and must follow each group of workers. Source: Internet.

The fact is, we have a large number of unemployed bachelors, so the rise of old age may directly affect the job opportunities of young workers, sir?

Of course, since our labor supply is still very high, laborers are trained a lot, but there are no opportunities to find a job, and there are only 55-56% of trained laborers that are used. So, from now until 2021, even to 2025, this situation will continue for a long time due to the huge labor supply.

Hence, in my opinion, we should not raise the retirement age before 2025 so that we can use trained workers at the same time. On that basis, we will have training policies based on demand, training must be linked to the labor market, the demand for use, but we cannot train as rampantly as today. In particular, employees must also identify that going to school is not the only goal of working in the State.

In my opinion, increasing the retirement age will create benefits from the high quality human resources that continue to contribute to the country. However, it is also necessary to avoid the barriers that make it difficult for a part of the young, skilled manpower to access high positions in order to develop their capabilities.

Do you think that increasing the retirement age in a massive way leads to a breakdown of the structure and planning of future staff?

If it is expected that from now to 2021 the retirement age will be raised, the problem will certainly happen but only in the short term. Increasing the retirement age, increasing the time to participate in social insurance is very necessary but must have time, have a roadmap and must follow each group of workers. Therefore, the implementation of the roadmap to raise the retirement age should be prolonged, not in 2021 but should last until 2025 or even 2030, so that our labor supply will be balanced.

In particular, increasing the retirement age also depends on the living conditions and the health of the workers. Probably life expectancy of Vietnamese people has been raised to 73 – 74 years old but health coverage is only 65, 66 years old.

Elderly people in Vietnam still have low quality of health that does not meet a prolonged working time, so we have to balance and implement many policies to improve both physical fitness and must take into account its impact. Increasing the retirement age must be appropriate, must be analyzed, calculated and considered with specific groups of labor, cannot be raised in bulk.

Thank you Sir!