Kickstarting a Pension System Through Privatisation

Overview

In this paper, we present a solution-oriented idea to combine the building of a resilient pension system and the privatisation of state assets: privatisation through pension funds. Many countries face the challenge of establishing or developing retirement systems while seeking to professionalise the management of state assets. Under the right conditions, privatisation through pension funds can contribute to both outcomes and should be considered by policymakers. The key difference to the traditional privatisation of state assets is that this idea would keep ownership of the asset with the population and spread the profit among a country’s population in the form of future retirement income. Privatisation through pension funds, therefore, constitutes a form of democratisation of a nation’s wealth.