The World Bank Director for the Western Balkans, Xiaoqing Yu stated that the World Bank will provide technical support for pension reform.

Present on Wednesday at the international conference on pension reform in Albania, where Prime Minister Edi Rama, and Minister of Economy, Culture and Innovation, Blendi Gonxhja, were present, Yu praised the government for placing pension reform at the forefront of reforms.

“Pension policies that are made today will affect future pensioners and contributors and this helps you have a long-term vision and provide a solution to this difficulty to achieve sufficiency in establishing equality between generations, budgetary sustainability, and macroeconomic impact,” she said.

Yu noted that the government has taken on the challenge of addressing this problem, with the 2014 reform that significantly improved the pension scheme by modifying the pension formula and strengthening the link between contributions and pension payments. It has also introduced a social pension, providing a solution to poverty in old age.

According to her, high-level migration, very high informality and under-declaration of income also undermine the obligation to meet pension payments.

Yu emphasized that “the Albanian government has understood this situation and the importance it has for the pension system. We will work to further improve some of the mechanisms of the pension system to have a smooth path in the future, building on the 2014 reform, and for this we are on the right track”.

She stated that the WB has helped many countries to reform their pension systems, through technical assistance and other means. “Pensions are very important for the well-being of people in this region, for budgetary sustainability as well as for the competitiveness of the economy,” Yu emphasized.