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This paper presents the experience of the Republic of Korea in setting up a National Pension Scheme (NPS) and assesses its likely effectiveness in coping with future challenges. The Korean NPS has features of both a pay-as-you-go system, as it does not have adequate reserves to guarantee the promised annuities, and a fully-funded system since payments are regularly made into a pension fund which could then be invested. It also has aspects of both public and private pension systems; public in terms of the management and regulation of its coverage and benefits, and private in terms of its financing where the involvement of the central government is limited to subsiding the operational expenses of the management agency, called the National Pension Corporation. The Korean NPS is likely to face future challenges due to rapid demographic changes such as the increase in the elderly population and the reduction of family size due to low fertility rates. These changes are likely to seriously test the viability of the NPS, the coverage of which seems to have expanded too fast too soon. The paper provides two main lessons for other developing countries: (a) a pension system should be based on accurate financial and demographic projections which affect its long-term sustainability; and (b) it is better to take a gradual approach by starting with a limited coverage, low-benefit package and upgrading it over time in keeping with the performance of the economy.

This paper provides the key elements to develop an integrated approach for measuring and monitoring city performance globally. The paper reviews the role of cities and why indicators are important. Then, it discusses past approaches to city indicators and the systems developed to date including the World Bank's initiatives. After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of past experiences, it discusses the characteristics of optimal indicators. The paper concludes with a proposed plan to develop standardized indicators that emphasizes the importance of indicators that are measurable, replicable, potentially predictive, and most importantly consistent and comparable over time and across cities. As an innovative characteristic, the paper includes subjective measures in city indicators such as well-being, happy citizens, and trust.

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