Internal: Archive

OECD names and shames tax havens

This content was published on Jun 26, 2000 Nearly three dozen off-shore centres were named, including Liechtenstein, which has a customs and currency union with Switzerland. The report will serve as a warning and give those identified one year to change their policies. Last week, an international report by the G7’s Financial Action Task Force listed 15 countries for failing to deal sufficiently…

Globalisation at heart of UN poverty summit in Geneva

This content was published on Jun 26, 2000 In 1995, the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen ended with United Nations member states promising to tackle poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. While not legally binding, it was felt the Copenhagen commitments carried a strong moral and political weight, especially as there was such a strong global consensus. Now, the UN General Assembly…

Couchepin to raise social issues at OECD meeting

This content was published on Jun 26, 2000 Among the issues likely to be raised at the two-day meeting, starting today, is tax evasion, and attempts by the European Union to combat money-laundering. To coincide with the meeting, the OECD is expected to publish a list of tax-havens in an increasingly hard-hitting drive to clamp down on big banking centres which thrive off…

Swiss travellers hit by French strike

This content was published on Jun 26, 2000 But the strike will also affect other departures from Zurich, Basel and Geneva as many of them will have to be routed around France to other European countries. The strike is scheduled to end at eight o’clock on Tuesday morning. More than 120 Swissair flights scheduled to operate Monday have been cancelled, this includes 64…

Half of Switzerland prepared to sacrifice holy cow of banking secrecy

This content was published on Jun 25, 2000 The survey was conducted in the French-language Sunday newspaper, dimanche.ch. However it also showed four out of ten people wanted to keep banking secrecy, while 51 per cent said Switzerland’s success as a financial centre was due to banking secrecy as opposed to the competence of Swiss banks. Only nine per cent though considered it…

Opponents of globalisation use UN summit to air grievances

This content was published on Jun 25, 2000 After a series of workshops on Thursday and Friday, at least 700 delegates from all over the world – from landless Brazilian peasants to South Korean trade unionists – will hold a plenary session in the University Mail building on Saturday, followed by a march to the United Nations on Sunday. “The main purpose of…

Couchepin to raise social issues at OECD meeting

This content was published on Jun 25, 2000 Among the issues likely to be raised at the two-day meeting, starting on Monday, is tax evasion, and attempts by the European Union to combat money-laundering. The meeting is being held five days after an international report listed 15 countries for failing to deal sufficiently with money-laundering. Switzerland, which maintains tight banking secrecy regulations, was…

Swiss scientists to assist survey of Martian interior

This content was published on Jun 23, 2000 Professor Alex Halliday, of the Federal Institute for Technology in Zurich, said Switzerland had advised Nasa scientists surveying the Martian surface, and that Swiss know-how would play a crucial role in efforts to determine whether there really is water on the planet. “The Swiss are going to be involved in putting instruments on Mars. These…

Trade Union demands state compensation for loss of military jobs

This content was published on Jun 23, 2000 The call was made in Berne by the Industry, Construction and Services Union (SMUV) after presentation of an independent study into the economic burden of national defence. One of the union’s leaders, Beda Moor, said that the main SMUV goal was not to absorb the shock of job losses in the military sector with redundancy…

Small breweries plead for bigger market share

This content was published on Jun 23, 2000 The group representing small and medium sized brewers says that Feldschlösschen has built up a quasi-monopoly in the beer market through an aggressive policy of acquisitions. Feldschlösschen controls close to 50 per cent of the sector. It wants the Competition Commission to order the separate sale of different brands such as Valaisanne and Cardinal. It’s…

Internal: Archive

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

Sign in and personalize Swissinfo