Mickoski: Citizens will be able to choose whether to contribute to private second-pillar pension funds
Mickoski criticised private pension managers for weak performance and said a hybrid choice for contributors is being considered.
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said citizens will be allowed to decide whether they use only the state pension fund or also contribute to private second-pillar pension funds, criticizing the private managers’ performance as insufficient.
Private funds “three times smaller” returns, Mickoski said
Mickoski told reporters that the companies managing the second pension pillar have behaved like weak entrepreneurs and that the returns on citizens’ contributions are “three times smaller” than expected.
He argued that fund managers cannot use citizens’ money without producing the returns agreed when the reform began two decades ago, and then shift the blame to others.
“That means they are weak entrepreneurs. You cannot use citizens' funds and not grow them and not deliver returns as they should be, as you agreed 20 years ago when this reform started, and now blame someone else. That doesn't work. If you are unsuccessful in business, someone more successful comes. And now we are considering some kind of hybrid solution in which citizens will be given the freedom to make their own decision whether they want to use only the state or both the state and the private pension pillars. We cannot have these companies that were given the honour to manage citizens' funds 20 years ago use them and not yield them as citizens expect,” Mickoski said.
The prime minister made the remarks at the start of construction of a new phase of the vacuum sewer system in Jurumleri, in the Gazi Baba municipality.
Photo: K.Popov)
