Dear Members and Friends

Spring has made its first appearance – and it brings increased hope for the relaxation of some of the pandemic control measures.

The results of the vaccination initiative in Israel are very promising; the virus spread and its impact on the health system seem to be reined in.

While this is encouraging, we have not seen any relief in the travel restrictions imposed by the Chinese government on travel to mainland China yet. On the contrary, it is now mandatory for travelers from some countries to be quarantined for 14 days before leaving for China, with a further quarantine after landing in China.

A change in these restrictions is not expected until the summer of 2021, when most travelers planning to go to China will have been vaccinated in their countries. For this to happen, the vaccines must be available to business travelers without a waiting period of several months.

With all the measures still in place and only slow and gradual relaxation steps, it is hard to imagine that the atmosphere of the summer 2008 can be revived for the Winter Olympics 2022 in Beijing, which are only 12 months away. I remember that during the Summer Olympics 2008 thousands of overseas tourists entered China, many of them experiencing for the first time the ‘new’ China with its vibrant and bustling cities. It was a clear and hopeful signal that China was back on the global stage.

The outlook for the Winter Olympics in Beijing is quite different. Travel restrictions will certainly remain in place to address the low risk tolerance of all stakeholders involved. The global economy has taken a severe beating, and travel budgets are not the same as before the pandemic. This would result in fewer overseas spectators attending the games. However, I could be wrong, and we will see a repeat of the ‘roaring twenties’, similar to what happened after the Spanish Flu in 1918.

The stakes are high for the economies of Switzerland and China. Are we going to have a fast and impactful recovery of the economy that leaves few behind, or will the savings of economic players and consumers in the G20 countries be depleted? In the second scenario, a recovery to pre-pandemic levels would take years, and both the Chinese and the Swiss economies would be severely affected.

As a chamber, we are very interested to understand how you, as a member, see and experience the signs of economic recovery, because that will help us all to weather these difficult times together. And we may enjoy a Winter Olympic 2022 in Beijing, celebrating a path to normality.

Our next newsletter will be issued in early April, and by then we will have some information on the annual gathering of the SCCC in June 2021. In the meantime, I wish you a good start into the Year of the Golden Ox.

With best regards,

Felix Sutter

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Huó dào lǎo, xué dào lǎo.

Live until you are old, and study until you are old. – You are never too old to learn.