Social Insurance Corporation to cooperate with Kyrgyzstani counterpart to improve pension reform

The Social Insurance National Corporation (CNAS) from Moldova will cooperate with the Kyrgyzstani Pension Fund to improve the pension reform and to adjust the relevant law to the international legal norms. A cooperation accord in this respect was signed on July 23 in Chisinau, Info-Prim Neo reports. The CNAS president, Maria Borta, says the cooperation accords with different states are necessary namely because Moldova is now adjusting its legal frame to international standards. The goal is to learn the experience of every country and to avoid the mistakes admitted before. “The Moldovan pensions reform, lasting since 1998, is good, but it needs to be finalized,” Maria Borta said. The deputy president of the Kyrgyzstani Pensions Fund, Abdualim Nishanov, says one of the key objectives of the accord is to enhance the pensioners' living standards. Nishanov considers the Pensions Fund has the advantage that the taxes to be poured into it are not collected by the fiscal agencies, as it is in Moldova, but directly by the Fund's employees. Thus, the Fund acts as an independent structure, without any connection with the Government. The Kyrgyzstani Fund deals only with collecting the relevant charges and with distributing the pensions, while the CNAS has more tasks, including establishing allocations, indemnities, treatment tickets. etc. Moldova has some 620,000 pensioners registered at a population of about 4 million. Abdualim Nishanov says Kyrgyzstan, with a population of 5 million, has 519,000 retirees. The men's retirement age is 63, and the women's -- 58. Up to now, CNAS has signed cooperation agreements with Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine.