Kralendijk -Kralendijk- PCN looks back on a successful conference on the possible introduction of a mandatory pension. The congress took place yesterday, November 14 at the Courtyard-by-Marriott hotel on Bonaire.

Under a mandatory pension scheme, both employers and employees must contribute to a savings scheme that leads to extra income after reaching retirement age. The theme is important because on the BES islands many people have to survive on retirement from only the AOV, which is far below the subsistence level that has been established by both the Nibud and the Bureau Regioplan.

During the congress, during which participants from all 6 Dutch Antillean islands were present, various speakers spoke. After a short introduction of the day by PCN chairman Harald linkels, Norwin Willem, secretary of trade union umbrella Usibo, spoke about the long-cherished wish of the unions to come to a compulsory supplementary pension on the island. Hans Kennis, from pension consultancy firm Montae Caribbean, took the participants on an exploratory study through the pension landscape and outlined some approaches to tackle the problem.

Wietze Koopmans from the consumer organization Unkobon provided background information about the calculations made by the Nibud and RegioPlan, when it comes to budgets that the various types of households need to get by.

Director of the health insurance office Angel Bermudez, also former Minister of Finance of Aruba told about the introduction of National Ordinance General Pension (LAP) on Aruba. The former minister gave valuable tips for a possible system on the BES islands based on the experience gained in Aruba.

Servaes Houben, chairman of the economist association in Curaçao and working as an actuary at Ennia Caribe gave background information about, among other things, the efforts to arrive at a general (compulsory) pension in Curaçao.

Concrete plan
PCN chairman Harald Linkels looks back with satisfaction at the conference. “We received a lot of positive feedback from the participants,” says Linkels. “The contributions from the various speakers, each from their own perspective, were assessed as particularly interesting. However, the challenge will be for the social partners, to work out a concrete plan in more detail when it comes to the introduction of such a mandatory pension system, “says the PCN chairman.