Manulife’s Gori says pension a great foundation to fill retirement savings gap

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The retirement savings gap in eight countries, Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK and the US, will reach about 400 trillion US dollars by 2050, according to a report by the World Economic Forum. Roy Gori, Canada’s largest insurer Manulife global CEO, said that pension is a great foundation to help fill the gap, especially in China.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in his government work report that the government will deepen reform of the old-age pension system, and establish a central system for enterprise employees' basic old-age pension funds to be used inter-provincially.

“Pension is a very important space that China is currently thinking much more about,” Gori noted, adding that the pension is significant to the global retirement savings gap.

“In 2015, the retirement savings gap was about 70 trillion US dollars. That forecasts to grow to 400 trillion US dollars by 2050. So we say that pension is a great foundation to help fill the gap, especially in China,” He told CGTN.

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Manulife has already joined forces with the Agricultural Bank of China last year to explore potential business opportunities in retirement and related businesses in China. With multiple investments in China such as Manulife-Sinochem, TEDA and MIS, Gori is excited about the market, terming it as an “incredibly important part of company’s global plans.”

“We are excited about various reasons. Firstly, China is incredibly large and growing economy. Secondly, industries of insurance and welfare are still nascent in China. In that case, we believe there is lots of room for growth and development. And finally, China is digitalizing at the rate faster than any other place in the world,” Gori explained.

(CGTN’s Wang Yue also contributed to the story.)