Switzerland – more than cheese and chocolate
This article submitted by Greater Zurich Area, a generous supporter of Santa Cruz Works.
Switzerland is known for its mountains, chocolate, cheese, and banks. What is often less known is that Switzerland is one of the most competitive locations for tech companies in the world. Google, Oracle, Apple, AWS, Palantir and many others have their European engineering hubs in the Zurich region and benefit from the country's economic and political stability, easy access to the European market, highly skilled workforce, economically liberal regulations, competitive tax system, and excellent infrastructure.
Here are the top three reasons for choosing Switzerland:
Business comes first - the business-friendly environment gives Switzerland a competitive edge: It makes the country faster and more flexible in adapting to new services and technologies and drives innovation. Companies get easy and direct access to local authorities thanks to the decentralized government structure. And unlike many European countries that have regularly seen large swings in support among the main national parties, Switzerland has remained an island of political and economic stability. Additionally, Switzerland employs a fiscal “debt-brake” rule that requires the federal government to balance its budget over the business cycle. With a debt ratio of 30%, Switzerland remains in excellent shape by international standards. Since the early 2000’s, Switzerland’s fiscal institutions have been successful in keeping the overall levels of taxation and spending at moderate levels. Independent and yet a central component of the European Single Market: Choosing the Greater Zurich Area guarantees access to more than 500 million consumers in Europe. Switzerland also has free trade agreements with 40 partners outside the European Union, including China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Canada.
Number 1 for talent attraction and retention - access to highly skilled talent and specialists is one of the most important success factors for companies and plays a key role in location decisions. According to the INSEAD Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2022 and the IMD World Talent Ranking 2021, Switzerland, particularly the Greater Zurich Area, is the world's most appealing location for attracting, retaining and developing talent. This is thanks to key factors like the excellent Swiss dual education system, the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons with the European Union, the country’s cosmopolitan attitude, attractive conditions for employees and employers, social mobility and the high quality of life.
Innovation-driven economy - Greater Zurich Area is Switzerland’s economy powerhouse and it’s where innovations are created: The internationally renowned research and academic institutions and the close cooperation between research and industry have turned the region into a hub for companies in technology sectors such as life sciences, information technology, fintech and blockchain, robotics and intelligent systems and manufacturing. Moreover, many renowned companies use the Greater Zurich Area as a location for the European-wide bundling of key corporate operations – such as holding companies, intellectual property management (IP), finance and supply chain management and R&D. In the most recent study of the World Economic Forum, Switzerland ranks even first now regarding R&D collaborations. Discover more about your specific industry in the Greater Zurich Area.
How we can support your business
Working with a network of public and private partners, Greater Zurich Area Ltd. provides companies with insights to fully leverage region’s opportunities for innovation driven companies.
Our services are free of charge and include:
Build the business case for Greater Zurich Area
Provide technology- and industry-specific insights and key contacts
Connect to leading professional, legal and accountancy service providers
Identify office space, industrial sites and business parks
Find research partners at globally leading universities including ETH Zurich (the MIT of Europe) and University of Zurich
Integrate companies into Greater Zurich Area’s various industry and business networks.
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5 fun facts you didn’t know about Switzerland
Switzerland is in the top 10 of the happiest countries in the world.
Switzerland is a culturally diverse country and has four official languages: German, Italian, French and Romansh. English is lingua franca and the second most spoken language in Zurich.
Switzerland has a direct democracy system where citizens can propose and vote on laws and constitutional amendments.
The Swiss national flag is square, unlike most other national flags.
The Swiss consume more chocolate per capita than any other country in the world.