00:00Petank, or Petanka, as it's called here in Spain.
00:06A type of bowling game loved in Spain and France.
00:10Here in Madrid, Don Alejandro Diaz is enjoying a day with friends.
00:19My name is Alejandro, I retired back in 2013 and I started working when I was just 16,
00:25so I was working for over 40 years.
00:28I would recommend everyone to retire when the time comes.
00:31Work, save your money and then retire.
00:33Have fun and enjoy life. You've earned it.
00:39Spain has a lot to offer retirees with over 300 days of sunshine and a relatively low cost of living.
00:46It's also part of a southern Europe region that has the oldest population in the world
00:51with more than 21% of people over 65.
00:56We're living longer, which is a good thing.
00:58By 2030, the WHO says that one in six of us will be over 60.
01:03But we're also having fewer children and that's a problem,
01:07because if we're all old, who pays for healthcare and pensions?
01:12On average, OECD economies spend around 8% of GDP a year on pensions.
01:17And to try and balance the books, Spain is raising its retirement age to 67 by 2027.
01:25Globally, experts say future planning is key to managing this issue.
01:30Well, the good thing of demographics is that it's a process that can be forecasted.
01:37So we can have a fair certainty about what will be the trends for the next,
01:42not only 10 and 5 years, but 20 to 50 years almost.
01:49The point of Petang is to get as close to the target as possible.
01:53And governments are resetting their targets to make sure pensions will be paid far into the future.
01:59For Alejandro Diaz, these extra working years should be used wisely.
02:09I think those additional working years added should serve more as mentoring years
02:13to teach new young employees, passing on their knowledge and experience.
02:23Living longer now means that we probably have to work longer too.
02:27And keeping both the younger and older generations happy is the challenge for governments worldwide.
02:33Ken Brown, CGTN, Madrid.
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