Rising to the retirement challenge in Asia

According to Hong Kong’s Commissioner of Insurance, Richard Yuen , the island’s elderly dependency ratio will increase from 166 retirees in 2005 to 428 retirees per 1,000 working people in 2033. This means that there will only be some 2.3 persons of the working age supporting one senior citizen comparing with six persons supporting one senior citizen now. Hong Kong currently has three core ‘pillars’ for retirement protection: a publicly-managed social safety net for the elderly; its privately-managed and fully funded mandatory contribution scheme, the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF); and the voluntary personal savings and insurance sector. In his opening speech at the 2nd Asian Conference and Retirement Planning, Mr Yuen focused on the third of Hong Kong’s three pillars for retirement protection and the role that long term insurers can play to support it