OREANDA-NEWS. June 16, 2010. The Government soon will launch the pension reform, as enacted by the reform program of the President of Ukraine. Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov said this during the program "Exam for power" at First National channel.

"In the short-run, the Government is working very actively on this, pension reform will be launched. The President talked about this, it is surely on the agenda", emphasized Mykola Azarov. The Prime Minister added that the need for reform is caused by the fact that the national pension system is very outdated in comparison with neighbouring countries and the European Union and does not provide our citizens with normal, warm existence in old age.

Mykola Azarov noted that the first phase of the pension reform has come into force since 2004. Then we had eliminated wage-levelling and increased pension accruals’ base.

According to the Head of the Government, the second stage involves the creation of personalized accounts on which every citizen will charge funds and, "what is quite important that no one without his consent can spend the money". Moreover, participation in funded pension provision will be solely voluntary. At the same time, as noted Mykola Azarov, the state, as soon as it starts to grow rich, will charge its share to these savings.

"Every person will have a chance till 55-65 years, depending on when he/she will retire, get beyond the basic pension guaranteed by the state, the pension that he/she accumulated him/herself", has stressed the Prime Minister and added that in that case in the state will appear pensioners, for which the pension of 5 thousand UAH won’t be a fantasy.