RP hosts Asia-Pacific real estate summit Charles E. Buban Inquirer
November 13, 2006
IN ITS 57 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, THE International Real Estate Federation, more popularly known by its French acronym Fiabci, has built a reputation as the authentic voice of international real estate.
The federation is not only international—with 100 real estate professional organizations and 1.5 million real estate professionals coming from 60 countries—but also multidisciplinary. Anyone involved in real estate can belong, be they brokers, counselors, lawyers, appraisers, financiers, architects, developers, contractors or investors.
No wonder Fiabci has special status at the UN, where it’s recognized as the voice of the private sector when real estate matters are considered.
Its Philippine chapter just hosted the Fiabci Asia-Pacific Regional Summit from Nov. 10 to 11 at Hotel Intercontinental Manila in Makati City.
11 countries
Chaired by Dato’ Alan Tong Kok Mau, real estate industry leaders from 11 member-countries—Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam – participated in the summit.
“With the globalization of the real estate market, Fiabci has long focused on real estate market indicators for investment across the countries comprising the membership of the federation. For its part, Fiabci-Philippines will take this opportunity to access the federation’s network in order to match our membership to other members in the Asia-Pacific region who may be looking beyond their own borders to try to realize higher returns by taking advantage of unique opportunities that the Philippine market could offer,” explained Bobby Sy, president of Fiabci-Philippines.
He led the Philippine investment forum on Nov. 11, discussing a situationer on several investment hotspots and growth corridor.
Perspective
With Sy, renowned architect Felino Palafox Jr. who is Fiabci-Philippines chair, provided summit participants with perspectives on areas for urban growth and renewal in the Philippine in a presentation titled “Postcards from the Future.”
Other summit speakers were National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) director general Romulo Neri, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) director general Lilia de Lima, Philippine Tourism Authority chair Robert Dean Barbers, Philippine Retirement Authority chair Edgardo Aglipay, and Philippine Retirement Industry president Dr. Ernesto Ordoñez.
Falafox said that Fiabci-Philippines would take the “opportunity to maximize this unique networking opportunity as we would like to hear the experiences of Malaysia and Singapore on real estate investment thrusts and that of Australia, Malaysia and Thailand on the retirement industry, in the hope that the country, through its local real estate developers and concerned key government agencies, can learn from these leading players in the Asia-Pacific region.”
