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Video Description

Type: KIHASA Policy Featurette

Topic: There Was a Plan All Along to Prevent the Depletion of the National Pension Fund

Guest Speaker: Professor Kim Woo-chang, KAIST; Professor Yang Jae-jin, Yonsei University

Transcript

Kim:

If we had started raising the national pension contribution rate to, say, 15.5% by 2030, and increased the fund's rate of return by 1 percentage point, then based on the 4th actuarial projection―which would be more optimistic than the 5th, since five more years have passed―it would have been feasible. Only if the pension reform had been carried out five years ago…

Yang:

Even now, based on my projections, if the contribution rate is raised to 15%, the fund’s return is increased by 1 percentage point, and 200 trillion won is injected upfront from the national treasury, it’s still doable. I’ve done all the calculations, but the problem is…

Kim:

What surprises me is that this proposal was already presented during the 4th actuarial projection, but no one bothered to take a look at it at that time. And now people are saying, “It could’ve worked.”

Yang:

Still, such discussions do have some effect. Of course, whether this proposal would be accepted is a matter of debate, and in reality, it is quite difficult to get it accepted. But since the discussions have come this far, and if these kinds of options can gain traction, become more widely known and discussed, who knows how things might turn out in the future.