LOCAL property developers and other stakeholders in the retirement industry should start getting their acts together and sell the Philippines as one and not just their individual projects for the country to get a bigger pie of the global retirement market.

Susan Barlin, a special trade and investment envoy and president of the Asian International Real Estate Expo and Conference (AIREEC), said while the Philippines got what it takes to be among the top retirement destinations, the country is currently lacking in sound marketing strategies to create a big noise overseas.

With this, Barlin said, the country is down the bottom of the preferred retirement havens in the World. In the 2005 Global Retirement Index, Barlin said the Philippines only ranked 113th.

This, she said, is despite the strong characteristics of the Philippines like affordability, income level, cost of living, interest rate, lifestyle and demographics.

She said the way to go is to emulate the other countries whose stakeholders are doing their promotions as one and are getting bigger share of the $45-billion market.

“Developers should come together and do a massive campaign as one, as a location, so they can create a big magnitude, not just a droplet but a wave,” Barlin said.

In the US alone, Barlin said the Philippines has a strong potential with the over 3 million Filipino-American community there.

Aside from this, Barlin said there are about 13,000 people retiring in the US every day.

She said the Philippines can target the 3.4 million “very poor” older persons in the US and tell them that they can get a good second home here.

Barlin said the country’s retirement stakeholders should start by uniting, sharing their data and combining their strategy.

A good venue for united promotional efforts, she said, are international expos like the AIREEC.

AIREEC will be attended by at least 3,000 registered foreign participants. The global event will be held from December 6 to 10, 2007, at the Philippine International Convention Center.

The sessions are divided into four groups: technology; real-estate projects (resorts, medical tourism, second homes, or retirement); contracting (construction, engineering and architecture); and services (business processing offices).

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LOCAL property developers and other stakeholders in the retirement industry should start getting their acts together and sell the Philippines as one and not just their individual projects for the country to get a bigger pie of the global retirement market.

THOUGH the government has yet to finalize its plans on how to divest off its shares at the state-run explorations company, Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves told reporters that the bidding for the government’s remaining stake in Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) will be undertaken next year.

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