Parliament keeps retirement age at 60

The urgent motion was submitted on July 8 by Khin Maung Nyo, an MP of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), urging for no change of the retirement age to 63 years old. The urgent proposal to keep the retirement age at 60 was supported by 379 MPs opposed by 168 MPs, with 7 abstentions.
  The current law sets the age of retirement at 60, but the Union Civil Service Board can alter the age of retirement according to the needs of the state.
Kyaw Thu, chairperson of Union Civil Service Board said: “The urgent proposal was discussed by 14 MPs, and the discussion increased their knowledge about human resources. We cannot deny that there will be pros and cons to keeping the age of retirement at 60. Increasing the age of retirement can prevent experts and their talents from leaving the country. And from a financial point of view, it can conserve the state’s budget by paying pensions later.”
MP Tin Maung Win said: “I have to support the proposal. We have to build a modernised country with new generations and new blood. We have about 600,000 students who finished higher education. We have over 160,000 fresh graduates from 160 universities and colleges annually. The country will be powerful only if we can place new blood in factories and industries to increase their capacity. Soldiers, who are also civil servants, serve 24 hours a day by the nature of their job. That’s why civil servants must be vigorous.”
He noted that the retirement age is set in accordance with the average life span in Myanmar: 64 for men and 68 for women.
Some, however, advocated to raise the retirement age.
Military MP Lt Col Hlaing Win said: “Although the retirement age of a civil servant is 60 years, it is beneficial for the state and respective government departments to keep workers employed as long as their experiences are helping the country. We can see that other countries’ governments continue to employ people who are over the official retirement age if they are in good health.”
 “Among the 215 members of the House of Nationalities, 92 are between the ages 60 and 85. We can see that they are doing their duties for the state and its citizens,” he said.
The military MP argued that the current retirement age is based on insubstantial and unofficial information.  He said that the decision could pose some resource limitations for some institutions like the military and police.
“People will adopt a negative view of the parliament if we make decisions based on guesses,” he said.
Nonetheless, most MPs supported the proposal to keep the status quo.
MP Khine Maung Yee said that only civil servants with insufficient income want to work beyond the age.  Others can pursue other careers like politicians which has no age restrictions.
MP May Win Myint from the National League for Democracy said: “The government’s duty to develop the economy is to create job opportunities for its citizens. …If the parliament extends the retirement age by another three years, it will limit job opportunities of recruits and the promotion of middle-range employees.”