The annual Arab Pensions Conference 2021 from November 16 to 17 will look at how the Mena pension systems should be designed for the next 50 years. It will also explore how do people want their children and their children to retire one or two generations from today. 

 

Hosted in Manama digitally under the patronage of Lieutenant-General Dr Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Chairman of Bahrain’s Supreme Council of Health, and Chairman of Al-Hekma Retired Society, the event is organised by Fintech Robos for Savings & Pensions Apps and expected to attract 400 delegates. 

 

“It has been nearly 50 years since social insurance and pension systems were first introduced into the Middle East and North African countries. With aging populations challenging the very model upon which pensions have been built, with majority of populations in these countries working in informal sector, with millions of youths being nudged to work in the new gig-economy, with more than half of the workforce in the GCC being expat workers, and with most regional pension funds running actuarial deficits, how should we design the region’s pensions systems for the next 50 years? How do we want our children and their children to retire one or two generations from today?,” said Ebrahim K Ebrahim, CEO of Fintech Robos and Chairman of the Arab Pensions Conference. 

 

The conference brings together bright minds from government pension funds, government agencies, asset management firms, actuary firms, audit firms, financial industry, HR leaders labour unions, employee benefits specialists and Fintech firms, to discuss how a more sustainable and futureproof retirement framework can be built, said Ebrahim. 

 

Ebrahim elaborated the debate would highlight what was once the region’s golden 50 years of pension, when pension funds and benefits were thriving regardless of unstable economy and labour markets; and what should be done now to build a vital pensions industry for the future. 

 

Speakers from global think-tank institutions will shed light on the predicted demographics and  investment returns of the Mena pension funds over the next 50 year, and how the private sector and FinTech technologies are bound to in play a key role.

 

Ebrahim said this is the only event for the pension industry in the Mena region, supported by a number of global institutions, reinforcing Bahrain’s attractiveness as a hub for major economic and financial events. 

 

Speakers from World Bank, OECD and world’s top-10 asset managers have already confirmed their participation.-- TradeArabia News Service