Wednesday, August 06, 2008 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
THE delay in the ratification of the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) is impeding partnership plans between potential Japanese partners and the Cebu Doctors Hospital Inc. (CDHI) for the construction of a retirement facility in southern Cebu.
The bilateral trade treaty seeks to promote investments and the trade of goods and services between Japan and the Philippines. It also controls the movement of health care workers from the country to Japan.
CDHI administrator Oscar Tuason said Jpepa will also ease the movement of retirees from Japan to Cebu.
“The investment is there but we need the Jpepa in our partnerships because our Japanese partners will provide the users and suppliers,” he told reporters yesterday.
He said they are optimistic that the agreement will be ratified soon. When this happens, they expect to accommodate more Japanese visitors who are potential partners in the building of the retirement facility.
CDHI, he said, entertained groups of Japanese partners last week and expects to accommodate another group by the end of the month.
“We’re still in a look-see, wait-and-see (state). Two groups told us that they’re not going to do anything since Jpepa is not yet ratified,” Tuason said. “They are very sensitive. In that essence, Jpepa is put as a condition,” he added.
He said the Japanese youth does not want to do anything with the health care profession because of its “inconvenience,” so they either export their elders to Indonesia and Vietnam or import health care workers.
The retirement facility, which will rise near the South General Hospital in the City of Naga in Cebu, is expected to be completed in a year or two after the Jpepa is ratified.
Tuason declined to state the amount of investment for the retirement facility, but said the facility would cost “hundreds of millions of pesos.”
He said the facility will rise on a 1.2-hectare lot near the CDHI-owned hospital. The development would be vertical and its top floors would have a view of the sea and the mountains.
Tuason admitted, though, that Japanese clients—mostly middle class and first class—prefer bungalows over condominiums. But building bungalows would need a bigger investment and a larger lot.
CDHI, he said, prefers to partner with foreigners—Japanese for the retirement facility and Europeans and Americans for medical tourism—because they provide additional clients.
Apart from the Japanese, Korean and American groups are also talking with CDHI about the construction of retirement facilities in the province.
“This is good for Cebu’s economy. We do not only want Japanese retirees to stay in Cebu; we also want the facility to serve as a training ground for would-be travelers to Japan since they will be required to learn the Japanese culture and communicate in Japanese,” Tuason said.
He believes that Cebu is ready as a retirement community for English-speaking nationalities. He said that Japanese prefer Filipinos health care professionals who are known to be hardworking and learn quickly.
Two Japanese groups—Jukenzai Group and Konoike Medical—have partnered with and tapped Cebu Doctors’ University to train future health workers for deployment to Japan. (NRC)
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