On the morning of November 21, President Ma Ying-jeou invited high ranking officials including Premier Sean Chen (陳冲), Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), and Examination Yuan President Kuan Chung (關中) to the Presidential Office to discuss the need to reform the nation's pension system, as well as the methods and direction of reforms. Afterwards, he convened a press conference to explain what had been discussed. In his remarks, the president emphasized that the pension system cannot and will not go bankrupt, and said that the government will come up with pragmatic and feasible plans to reform the system. President Ma said that the public need not be worried about this issue.
The following are the remarks delivered by the president:
I would like to take this opportunity to speak about the nation's pension system on three fronts. First, reform of the pension system is necessary. Second, I will explain various methods to be taken to reform the pension system. And third, I will discuss the direction of the reforms.
Firstly, the pension system was created to establish an economic safety net for the nation's elderly. Over the past 60-plus years, we have established a multi-level pension system which has played its intended role in many respects. However, the decreasing birth rate and the large increase in the number of senior citizens have made the challenges facing the pension system increasingly serious.
Advanced nations throughout the world began to reform their pension systems in the 1980s, with most revisions focused on reducing benefits. The ROC is also facing a similar problem, and we can no longer delay addressing this issue. Generally speaking, the existing pension system has three shortcomings. First, the system suffers from insufficient funding. Second, payouts vary from one group of recipients to the next. And third, the payouts vary from generation to generation. Consequently, we need to come up with pragmatic and feasible reforms to address these three problems. The necessity, urgency, and complexity of this issue cannot be ignored. If we do not resolve these problems in a timely manner, our national finances will suffer, and it won't just be laborers, teachers, civil servants, and military personnel who are affected; society as a whole will suffer. Of course, we cannot expect the necessary reforms to be completed overnight. However, I want to take this opportunity to make it clear that the nation's pension system cannot and will not go bankrupt. The government will responsibly introduce pragmatic and feasible measures to ensure the viability of the pension system. Please rest assured that there is no cause for concern.
Secondly, reform of the pension system is the government's responsibility, but we are very open to input from opposition parties. Recently, some members of the opposition have suggested that a large-scale national conference be held to examine the pension system. I believe their intentionsare good, but the advisability of their proposal is debatable. I have mentioned in many venues that the convening of large-scale national conferences could lead to needless rehashing of certain issues. When former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) convened a national conference 22 years ago, I served as the deputy secretary-general of the preparatory committee, which afforded me a good understanding of the various conditions and factors facing Taiwan at that time. In those days, we had not yet put up all the seats in the parliament for re-election, and normal constitutional government had yet to be restored. Given the conditions at that time, it was appropriate to hold a national conference that included representatives from the ruling and opposition parties. Taiwan's constitutionally based political system at present, however, is quite well developed. In addition, the opposition holds a significant number of seats in the legislature. The opposition can make itself heard and submit suggestions via the framework of the Executive Yuan, the Examination Yuan, and the Legislative Yuan. The purpose of a national conference—to forge a broad-based consensus within society—can be achieved via the operations of the Executive Yuan, the Examination Yuan, and the Legislative Yuan when these latter draft and deliberate upon legislation hold public hearings or seminars, or via other methods. We feel that this approach would be less time consuming and would better respect the existing constitutional system.
Thirdly, this morning I convened a meeting with the premier, the president of the Legislative Yuan, and the president of the Examination Yuan. After listening to briefings from related agencies, we determined that the objectives should be to reduce deficits and to ensure sustainable funding. The strategies to be employed will be comprehensive, pragmatic, gradual in nature, and transparent. Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan and the Examination Yuan will create ad hoc bodies to carry out planning of related topics, and concrete reform plans will be unveiled in January of next year. The Legislative Yuan will deliberate upon related bills and legislation once they are submitted. The Executive Yuan will mainly handle issues related to labor pensions and other types of pensions, while the Examination Yuan will be mainly responsible for civil service pensions. These two branches of the government will divide work among each other because this will be a comprehensive undertaking.
We reached a consensus today that the Executive Yuan and the Examination Yuan will explain the details of various plans to the public in a more concrete manner, and in particular it is important that the opinions of all sectors of the public be listened to during this process. In summary, in the course of this process, we want to make sure that we have very pragmatic and clear objectives, that the processes adopted are transparent and carried out in a step-by-step nature, and that thorough communication is carried out with all sectors of society.
The pension system impacts the future of many people throughout society. We must consider all aspects and any changes very carefully, but at the same time we cannot delay. If we do not take action now, we will regret it down the road. We must begin to undertake changes as soon as possible so as to alleviate worries among the public or at least reduce the chance of certain possibilities from arising. This was the main objective of the meeting that was held today. In addition, we have confidence that we can face this complex and problem, and introduce pragmatic and feasible reform plans.
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After completing his remarks, the president responded to several questions posed by members of the media. In response to one question as to whether he will invite leaders of the opposition to discuss the issue of pension reform, President Ma said he is always open to suggestions, and that he previously invited leaders from the opposition to exchange opinions on related topics but has not received a positive response. President Ma mentioned that the leaders of the United States and the United Kingdom periodically invite leaders from the opposition for talks at the White House or at 10 Downing Street, and the president expressed his hope to interact with leaders from the opposition in this manner, adding that he believes this will help to resolve problems.
President Ma said that this is a thorny issue that must be tackled by whichever party is in power. In fact, he said, the seriousness of the current problem with the pension system is not unrelated to how pension issues have been handled for many years. However, the government's most pressing issue now is to face the future. Consequently, he said, he hopes to invite opposition leaders to discuss the issue and exchange opinions on basic principles regarding pension reform and the direction thereof. At this stage, however, discussions would not touch on specific details. President Ma pointed out that the opposition holds a significant number of seats in the Legislative Yuan. If a consensus can be forged on these issues in the legislature, and party chairpersons or high-ranking officials in each party can come to agreement on various items of legislation, this would facilitate the process of deliberations in the Legislative Yuan, he said.