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Businesses set for improved 2004

This content was published on Jan 16, 2004 Financial services, capital goods, telecoms and pharmaceuticals are the industries tipped to lead the economic recovery in 2004. The survey, published on Friday, covered 4,300 companies in the country’s 27 main business sectors. UBS said that most firms were feeling more optimistic following several years of economic gloom. “In view of the brighter economic prospects…

Welfare office denies foreigners cheat the system

This content was published on Jan 15, 2004 The SIO dismissed the allegations as “populist propaganda”, prompting some parliamentarians to accuse it of bias. The rightwing Swiss People’s Party launched a campaign last year against bogus invalidity benefit claimants. As part of the campaign, the party said foreigners living in Switzerland received a significant portion of Switzerland’s benefit funds. But the SIO says…

Swiss export BSE expertise to North America

This content was published on Jan 15, 2004 In a separate development, Zurich-based biotech firm, Prionics, is to supply rapid BSE tests to the Canadian government. The announcements come a few days after the United Nations praised Switzerland for its efforts to control BSE or mad cow disease, calling it a model for other nations. The US said that a cow had become…

Effects of restructuring felt at Swiss

This content was published on Jan 15, 2004 The company is in the midst of a cost-cutting programme that has seen it slash jobs and reduce its fleet and network in an attempt to reach profitability. The airline carried 10.66 million passengers in 2003, down by about a million over the previous year’s figures. But the occupancy rate on board its flights rose…

SGS announces 2003 profit surge

This content was published on Jan 15, 2004 Analysts welcomed the result as a clear sign that the firm was overcoming its management difficulties of recent years. Earnings per share in 2003 rose by 43 per cent to SFr29.24, buttressing SGS’s previous promise to investors that it would generate earnings of SFr45 a share by 2005. “This is not withstanding the recent weakness…

Swiss name more banned airlines

This content was published on Jan 14, 2004 But the complete list of 21 banned aircraft remains secret. Wednesday’s announcement came in response to an Italian news agency report naming eleven airlines allegedly banned from Switzerland. In addition to the Egyptian carrier, Flash, whose passenger jet crashed into the Red Sea earlier this month, the FOCA said it had banned one plane from…

Swiss engagement in Central Asia

This content was published on Jan 14, 2004 Switzerland also represents a group of the region’s former Soviet-bloc countries at the World Bank and IMF – a group known as “Helvetistan”. The arrangement gives Switzerland more clout in those institutions and a bigger voice for Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, as well as Poland.

New atlas plots Swiss political landscape

This content was published on Jan 13, 2004 A new atlas illustrating Switzerland’s political landscape plots the main demarcation lines in the country. In recent decades, geography has extended its scope. Instead of simply studying and describing natural features such as mountains, lakes and rivers, geographers now increasingly focus their attention on the relationship between people and their environment. This trend has produced…

WEF draws world leaders to Davos

This content was published on Jan 13, 2004 The theme for this year’s meeting is “Partnering for Security and Prosperity”. More than 2,100 business and political leaders from 94 countries are expected to gather in the Swiss resort from January 21 to 25. Unveiling the guest list at WEF headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday, executive chairman and founder, Klaus Schwab, urged world leaders…

ABB clinches Oil Gas Petrochemicals sale

This content was published on Jan 13, 2004 ABB said the US investment bank JP Morgan and the British firms 3i Group and Candover had bought the unit for $925 million (SFr1.17 billion). The deal does not include the OGP’s asbestos-plagued Lummus Global unit. ABB expects to sell this part of the business some time this year. A preliminary agreement had been announced…

Cluster: Archive

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