News

By Regina Rao. October 12, 2013.

On the evening of Oct.10th, 2013, Law School Professor Heinz-Dietrich Steinmeyer from University of Muenster, Germany delivered an inspiring speech to SHUFE Law School student and the speech topic is “Legislation on Postponing Retirement Age and the Social Reactions in Germany and the EU”. Dr. Wu Wengfang, from Shufe Law School, who was also the Professor’s student hosted the lecture.

The theme Professor Heinz-Dietrich Steinmeyer delivered is a discussion of the legislation on postponing retirement age and the reason for this reform. In the beginning of his speech, he started with an interesting question: who will cover the elder generation financing after their retirement. Then this leads to his speech theme, reforming the pension insurance system. Also he introduced Germany pension system “PAGY -pay as you go” which means that the contributions of those who are working are not saved and put in an accumulated fund for their retirement but that these contributions are used to finance the benefits now paid to the retirees. Later, after showing population statistics graph in different periods, he illustrated the financial problem for the system and also three solutions. Then that comes to his argument: country should postpone retirement age. Besides, he showed the retirement age situation in some EU countries which have so different retirement age ranges.

At the last of speech, Dr. Wu Wengfang made a summary combining the Professor’s speech and Chinese pension system situation. And many students actively raised their questions and thoughts relating to Chinese national condition. Through professor’s vivid illustration, students gained a better understanding about the Germany retirement situation and pension system. At the same time, the speech triggered students to think about the pension reform concerning the Chinese situation.