CNN.com - Transcripts

MAIN PAGE
WORLD
U.S.
WEATHER
BUSINESS
SPORTS
POLITICS
LAW
SCI-TECH
SPACE
HEALTH
ENTERTAINMENT
TRAVEL
EDUCATION
CAREER
IN-DEPTH

QUICK NEWS
LOCAL
COMMUNITY
MULTIMEDIA
E-MAIL SERVICES
CNNtoGO
ABOUT US

CNN TV

what's on

show transcripts

CNN International
askCNN

EDITIONS

CNN.com Asia
CNN.com Europe
set your edition

CNN WORLD REPORT

Are You Going to Be Financially Solvent in Your Retirement?

Aired August 26, 2001 - 14:31 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: Most people hope to reap the rewards of a lifetime of hard work when they retire, but according to a recent report from the International Labor Organization, that doesn't always happen. ILO TV explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you are lucky, retirement is the way Roger DuVoisin describes it.

ROGER DUVOISIN, RETIREE (through translator): For me, retirement marks the beginning of a new life. It's a pivotal moment, if you have prepared for it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But not everyone's retirement is so privileged. Antonio Cardona scavenges the runoff from emerald mines in Columbia. The only pension he will ever know will come from what he finds in the river bed.

ANTONIO CARDONA, SENIOR CITIZEN (through translator): No one has any kind of pension here. You have to work. Because if you don't work, you have nothing, and your friends won't care about you, because they would think you are lazy. I'm 72 years old. I should be retired with a pension.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For most workers, retirement may be as evasive as the emeralds in Antonio Cardona's river. A new report from the International Labor Organization, the ILO, says 90 percent of the world's workers will not be able to retire with an adequate pension. As Colin Gillion, author of the ILO report on Social Security pensions observes.

COLIN GILLION, ILO SOCIAL SECURITY EXPERT: Any pension which doesn't lift people above the poverty line is not a reasonable pension. There should be, as a matter of principle, an income in old age which is at least above the poverty line. That's what we would define as adequate. It mainly arises in developing countries where the systems are very weak.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In Africa, the majority of people work outside the formal economy. Retirement is a fringe benefit very few enjoy. Many Asian retirement plans, where they exist, depend on individual accounts that were hit hard by the financial crisis. In Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union the elderly are not so much retired as resigned to a pension system crippled in the move to a market economy.

Whatever shape their economy is in, almost everywhere you look pension reform is on everyone's agenda. Latin America has been a hotbed of pension reform. Chile introduced a privatized pension system that depends on individual savings account. It can be a risky venture, but even the U.S. Social Security Administration encourages private pension accounts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION AD")

NARRATOR: The future is in your hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The best future may lie in pension systems that mix public and private funds. It is a way forward for those facing the road to retirement.

This report was prepared by Damien Renauld (ph) and Karen Sikiguchi (ph) of the International Labor Organization for the CNN WORLD REPORT.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com