segunda-feira, 7 de junho de 2010

Swiss economy spills over the borders

Of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, 17 border on other countries, and hundreds of thousands of commuters enter Switzerland to work every day.

The border regions of Germany, France and Italy are more important to the Swiss economy than China, the United States and India, Jean-Daniel Gerber, head of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), told a French newspaper recently.

In other words, the notion of a border has changed. The Swiss economy overflows into the surrounding parts of Germany, France and Italy. 

To Switzerland’s north and east, the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria are economic power houses, whose economies mesh closely with that of Switzerland. 

“On the European scale, the two neighbours form a single entity, a very strong economic region, where the border scarcely exists,” said Daniel Heuer, head of export marketing at the Germany-Switzerland Chamber of Commerce. 

The industries of the two regions complement each other in areas like microtechnology and microelectronics.