Swiss compete with the best in industries of tomorrow

Knowledge-based industries are expected to lead growth in the 21st century Keystone Archive

The future looks bright for high technology in Switzerland. Experts say the Swiss are well placed to exploit the expanding industries of the 21st century.

Three separate reports on global competitiveness – two in the last month – put Switzerland among the world’s best-placed nations to develop “knowledge based” industries.

“By knowledge industries, we are talking about industries which rely on relatively highly trained people,” said Georges Haour, professor of technology management at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne.

“We mean the technology intensive industries such as pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals and consumer electronics and also the service industries such as consulting, banking and insurance.”

Switzerland tops league table

Last week, the Financial Times newspaper published a league table of countries, putting Switzerland at the top, followed by Sweden and the United States.

To create the table, the Financial Times used ten key sets of data from a wide-ranging study by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The data, which the paper selected, was linked to current and predicted future performance in knowledge-based industries.

Haour said there was a wide range of reasons why Switzerland was expected to do well in these fields.

“Broadly, Switzerland has been fairly consistent in investing substantial amounts of money in education,” he told swissinfo. Although critics say funding has declined in real terms, Haour pointed out that Switzerland “still invests much more than many other European countries”.

“If you look at the quality of infrastructure and the material conditions for research, Swiss institutions are usually in a pretty good situation compared to their counterparts in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.”

Advantageous tax system

He also said the number of large, multinational companies in Switzerland demonstrated the country’s global perspective. “The Swiss have been very successful in building some very substantial knowledge-intensive industries such as pharmaceutics, banking and insurance.”

He added that Switzerland was an attractive place for entrepreneurs because of the quality of life and the high level of infrastructure. “In terms of start-ups, it’s not a bad place to be if you want to start a new technology venture.”

According to Haour, the Swiss tax system is also an advantage. “It’s pretty friendly to corporations, in general, and to technology-intensive holdings, in particular.”

Another report, the IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook, compares the competitiveness of 46 nations using nearly 300 criteria such as economic performance, government and business efficiency and the quality of infrastructure. The IMD’s report relies on the opinions of business leaders as well as statistics.

Obstacles to overcome

In this year’s report, Switzerland ranked tenth, with the United States, Singapore and Finland occupying the first three spots. The Yearbook’s director, Professor Stephane Garelli, said any country in the top ten was doing well.

However, Switzerland still has some obstacles to overcome, Haour told swissinfo. These include a cumbersome procedure for acquiring work permits and the fact that it does not recognise limited partnerships for venture capital companies.

“Switzerland is a country which has some difficulty reforming itself quickly,” said Garelli.

The World Economic Forum, based in Geneva, also publishes a Global Competitiveness Report and according to this year’s edition, Finland has the best prospects for growth over the next five years while Switzerland ranks in 15th place.

by Vincent Landon