Like Germany, many countries are grappling with the issue of how to secure pension systems. Countries are facing the challenge of how to ensure that people are adequately provided for in retirement despite low birth rates, high life expectancy and rising living costs. To learn from each other and exchange ideas on reform approaches, State Secretary Dr Rolf Schmachtenberg and Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Ki Il Lee met at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in Berlin on 9 June 2023.
Discussions focused on the financial sustainability of pension systems and the challenges of implementing reforms. "Although our pension systems differ in some respects, we face similar challenges. Our exchange of views is therefore also a source of ideas for our discussions on the pension system in Germany
," said State Secretary Schmachtenberg.
The discussion also touched on the participation of people with disabilities in the labour market and the German experience with personal budgets.
The meeting takes place in a year of special significance for relations between the two countries. In addition to commemorating 140 years of diplomatic relations, which is very gratifying in itself, this year the two countries are also commemorating the conclusion of a recruitment agreement 60 years ago, which brought some 8,000 miners from the Republic of Korea to Germany. In 1971 another agreement followed, this time on the employment of nurses and nursing assistants.
State Secretary Schmachtenberg made the following statement: The more than 18,000 guest workers, as they were called, from the Republic of Korea made a significant contribution to our economic development and laid the foundation for closer social and cultural ties between our countries.