Retirement haven: PH targets 80,000 retirees by 2020

CLARK FREEPORT — The Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) plans to increase the number of foreign retirees in the country to 80,000 by 2020 through various incentives, according to the agency’s top official.

As of November, foreign retirees numbered 53,355, Bienvenido Chy, PRA general manager, said after he inducted officers of the newly formed Philippine Investors and Retirement Industry Council (Piric) here on Thursday.

Most of the retirees are from China, Korea, Taiwan, India, Japan, United States and Australia.

“They prefer the Philippines as a retirement place,” Chy said. “Our advantages are our beautiful climate, we have the best golf courses and beaches, our people are naturally friendly and it is economical to live here,” Chy said.

PRA offers foreign retirees and Filipino retirees, who have acquired foreign citizenship, a special resident retiree’s visa that gives them nonimmigrant status and grants them multiple-entry and indefinite stay.

Exemptions

Chy said that PRA would exempt them from paying travel taxes and allow them and their children to study in the Philippines.

He said retirees were not required to go to the Bureau of Immigration to acquire a visa. They were also linked to business partners should they wanted to invest here.

Retirees are encouraged to start or expand businesses given that the economy has enjoyed a 6.9 percent growth rate, Chy said.

He said that Clark Freeport and New Clark City had been generating more interest because the Duterte administration was building an international terminal and a railway here.

A recent survey undertaken by Expat Explorer in more than 100 countries showed that “52 percent or more than half of expatriates in the country found better personal fulfillment working in the Philippines than in their home countries,” Chy said in a speech at the Piric forum.

As an attached agency of the Department of Tourism, PRA drew a net income of P453.2 million in 2016, remitting P210.44 million of that amount to the national government. —Tonette Orejas