Dear Members and Friends

Welcome to 2021 and a happy and prosperous New Year!

Many of you will still be at home, either enjoying the last days of the holidays or already working on making 2021 a better year than 2020 was.

The rollout of the vaccines has started, and the Swiss authorities gave green light to start the vaccinations in Swiss health institutions. These good news arrived just before Christmas – and they were more than welcome in an otherwise tense situation.

Did you know that the Swiss economy is heavily involved in making vaccination possible? Most of us know that a vaccine is produced in Valais, less well known is that the extreme-temperature cooler for transporting another vaccine is developed and manufactured in Zug. Other parts sourced from Switzerland or Swiss companies are the glass vials that contain the vaccine and the rubber seal that will keep it safe.

China, on the other hand, will for the foreseeable future provide personal protection equipment (PPE) to the world and therefore to Switzerland; equipment that we will need well into 2021 as vaccination will not be the end of the pandemic but rather the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Also vitamins and active ingredients used by the pharma industry in Switzerland to produce medical cures for diseases stem from China.

There are strong links between the Swiss and Chinese economy in life science, and therefore it is not surprising that Swiss companies have strong R&D capabilities in China. Recently, Chinese companies have shown interest to setup R&D facilities in Switzerland, recognizing the importance of the Swiss R&D ecosystem and the innovation capability of the Swiss economy. Due to restricted business travel, it is important to have representatives in each country who can fill the gap that cannot be bridged with video calls/conferences.

We expect a surge of companies setting up offices in China and vice versa in Switzerland. The chamber is well positioned to support these enterprises in both countries. Our newly set-up SME platform with a large Q&A section will be released in the first quarter of 2021. Other SCCC initiatives for 2021 are well underway and will be announced in due time. What we can say for now is that we will conduct an anniversary event on June 22, 2021, in the Zurich area.

We wish you all a great start into the year of 2021! May it bring us fresh energy, good health, a rapid economic recovery, and less burdensome travel restrictions to conduct our business endeavors.

With best regards,

Felix Sutter

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Shǒu dé yún kāi jiàn yuèmíng.

Watch until the clouds part to see moonlight. – When things look black, there is always a silver lining.