President Sargsyan Again Defends Pension Reform Amid Growing Critici

PRESIDENT SARGSYAN AGAIN DEFENDS PENSION REFORM AMID GROWING CRITICISM

NEWS | 17.02.14 | 09:33

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has again defended an unpopular
pension reform as the leader of the second largest parliamentary
faction stepped up criticism over the weekend.

Speaking at the Saturday convention of his Prosperous Armenia Party,
which positions itself as alternative to the current government, Gagik
Tsarukyan described the law on the mandatory accumulation pension
system as an example of “fruitless economic and social policy” being
carried out in the country. “I cannot imagine a more inhumane and
unproductive step in a country where every third person is poor,”
Tsarukyan emphasized in his speech at the convention.

Under the law that came into effect on January 1 all working citizens
of Armenia aged below 40 must pay an additional 5-10 percent of their
salaries to privately owned pension funds on the understanding that
they will be able to use the money doubled by the state upon reaching
the retirement age at 63. Many citizens in Armenia find the law to
be unfair, saying that it worsens their social situation already today.

Speaking at a different event, President Sargsyan again pronounced
in favor of the reform, despite acknowledging that 80 percent of
citizens might be dissatisfied with it.

He said, however, that citizens will only benefit from it in the long
term. “We are not fools to use our political resource, people are not
content with us, we have no political profit here, we do not gain any
resource. We use this resource in order to get it back in 20 years’
time, for our children,” Sargsyan emphasized.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress