Switzerland Today

Hello from Switzerland,

Where the country is heading into what it hopes will be a nice, quiet weekend before the world’s elite descend on the Alps for the World Economic Forum. We’ll be back with our next briefing on Monday.

© Keystone / Christian Beutler

In the news: cinema tickets and coffee trade

• Over 10 million tickets were sold by Swiss cinemas in 2023 – a jump of 20% on 2022, but still down 16% on 2019, the year before Covid-19 came along to disrupt the industry. Barbie was the top attraction in the German-speaking part of the country, with 480,000 admissions. And while US films accounted for just 24% of films shown, they racked up 68% of all admissions.
• Agri-food giant Nestlé plans to invest $100 million (CHF85 million) to expand production capacities at its coffee factory in Tri An, in southern Vietnam. The factory currently exports coffee products from brands including Nescafé, Nescafé Dolce Gusto and Starbucks to more than 29 countries. Vietnam is currently the world’s second largest producer and exporter of coffee.
• A report by the Swiss Federal Audit Office says that optimising the validation process for new drugs could reduce by a year the time it takes for new treatments to reach patients. It currently takes around two and a half years for this to happen.

© Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

Swiss ministers: ironing their suits for Davos

Of the 2,800 illustrious names who have made it onto guest-list for next week’s WEF, six will be more closely watched others by the Swiss media – despite not being household names elsewhere. As it does every year, the Swiss government is heading (almost) en masse to Davos: this year six of the seven sitting ministers are making an appearance for some 40 bilateral discussions, SRF writesExternal link today.

While the exact nature of all the meetings is not clear, SRF says priority themes for the ministers will include EU relations (Ursula von der Leyen and Maros Sefcovic will be attending), international security (foreign minister Ignazio Cassis will chair Ukraine peace talks on Sunday, before WEF starts), as well the chance to meet international finance and economics counterparts.

However, the most important meeting in the coming days, from a Swiss perspective, could be some 270 kilometres away in Bern. On Monday, Chinese prime minister Li Qiang will received with military honours by Swiss president Viola Amherd and Economics Minister Guy Parmelin, before he too sprints up to Davos. It’s the first official visit by a Chinese PM in a decade.

What’s on the agenda? Most likely a 10-year-old free trade deal, the NZZ writes today. Both sides are interested in widening the deal’s scope: the Swiss would notably like better market access for investment, as well as higher sustainability and environmental standards; China is keen to prevent any further Swiss criticism of its domestic human rights policies.

And while it’s unclear what exactly will come out of the meeting on Monday, it’s at least an important sign that bilateral relations are starting up again after years of stasis, Le Temps writes – stasis notably triggered by Swiss questioning of political decisions in Beijing. It’s also a good chance for ministers in Bern to initiate relations with Qiang, who took up his post just last year.

Keystone / Karl Mathis

Ticino: not all balmy weather

Is Ticino set to welcome yet another imminent retiree? English comic John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, tells CH Media newspapers today that the southern canton is the only place in Switzerland where he would consider moving. Despite Switzerland being a generally “wonderful” nation with a “grown-up outlook”, Cleese is determined not to live anywhere cold – which rules out the rest of the country, he says.

Cleese should be careful what he wishes for however: while Ticino indeed enjoyed a surprisingly warm Christmas, and Lugano is the country’s warmest city, things can always get chilly; temperatures in Ticino capital Bellinzona are set to dip to -3°C tonight. There might be plenty of sunshine down south, but there’s not many places in the Alpine nation where you can fully avoid the winter.