YEREVAN.- The USAID funded Pension and Labour Market (PALM) Project, the Pension System Awareness Center Foundation, NASDAQ OMX/Armenia and the State Social Security Service have initialed series of lectures at the leading Universities  of Armenia.

The first lecture was held in the library hall of the Armenian State Pedagogical University after Kh. Abovyan. Presenter – Mr. Vardan Aramyan, Armenian Deputy Minister of Finance.

Pension issues are of a key importance for policy makers throughout the world and many countries, which still struggle under the financial burden of current Pay-As-You-Go systems based on intergenerational solidarity, consider possible solutions and explore opportunities to shift to multi-pillar pension systems.

Today, through this reforms we aim to address those issues that the mentioned countries have now and which is a threat for us in the near future if not to step in reforming the current PAYG system. Moreover, the proposed reform will bring about a new culture and thinking among the society by creating incentives to perform better in the labour market and it is pretty much understandable: everyone should think of his/her own future and make savings while working and the Government, in its turn, will have to provide the required environment for this.  For another hand, the primary responsibility of the Government is to address poverty reduction and other social issues. This was the summary of the key points presented by Mr. Aramyan. 

Also he explained that the persons born in and after 1974 are due to cumulate their pensions as of 2014. By the way, the Deputy Minister himself is to be a participant of the new funded scheme and by his own example, he developed a case for a future pensioner of funded scheme by thus, making the presentation more entertaining and the arguments more convincing.

The next lecture will be delivered by Mr. Aharon Chilingaryan, Board Member of the Central Bank of Armenia, in the Armenian State University of Economics on March 13th,This activity is targeted to more than 1000 students and lecturers of the leading Armenian Universities. 

Within this program, an essay contest ‘My vision of economic development within the context of pension reforms in Armenia’ has been announced for the undergraduate and postgraduate students. It is also designed to raise the interest and enhance the knowledge on pensions among University students. Best essays will be awarded – the winner will get iPad 2.