A global wealth report released by Allianz this week put the Swiss at the top. The average Swiss has EUR 146,540 of net financial assets. This puts them in first place ahead of the Americans with EUR 119,570. The UK is down in 10th position with EUR 63,490 per capita. Overall, the world was 9.9% […]
Ebola nurse arrives in Geneva from Sierra Leone
According to the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs, a foreign nurse who was working for an international organisation in Ebola affected Sierra Leone, arrived in Geneva yesterday suffering from a bite inflicted by a child suffering from the Ebola virus. The communiqué stated that this is the first person to land in Switzerland from a region affected […]
Netflix streaming service arrives in Switzerland
Netflix, a US provider of on-demand Internet streaming, this week launched a second wave of European expansion. The film and TV series streaming service is now available in France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Netflix promised its shareholders growth and this latest development is central to its plans. Competition in some of these markets, however, is stiff. Germany has Prime Instant Video from […]
Changing times at Le Temps
The Swiss Competition Commission last week approved publisher, Ringier’s take-over of flagship Swiss daily Le Temps. Managing director, Valérie Boagno has left the company and Daniel Pillard, CEO at Ringier Romandie, assumes operational management in the interim. From April 2015, Stéphane Benoit-Godet (44), Bilan’s current editor-in-chief, will be the newspaper’s editor-in-chief. Benoit-Godet worked for […]
Swiss vacancy rates increasing
According to data recently released by the Federal Office of Statistics 45,748 dwellings were vacant in Switzerland at 1 June 2014. This is just over 1% of all dwellings and represents an annual 14% increase in vacancy rates. The biggest increases were in the Lake Geneva region, followed by the Mittelland, Zurich and eastern Switzerland. […]
Exploring tomorrow’s terrain
Planning for the future? Of course you are. We all are. But a solid plan needs to be based on a vision of how the future might change. How solid is your vision? Most organizations rely on projections or forecasts to try and get a handle on the way things will develop in the future. […]
Apple takes aim at Swiss watch industry
Apple, the US-based technology company, has predictably tried and to a degree succeeded in getting a rise from the Swiss media by claiming that its latest device, a digital watch, will cause the demise of the Swiss watch industry. The campaign disingeniously ignores the truism that a wristwatch is worn for far more than just […]
WHO demands e-cigarette bans and marketing restrictions
Much to the irritation of the tobacco industry, including corporate giants such as Philip Morris in Switzerland, the World Health Organization is demanding that governments ban electronic cigarettes indoors. It also wants curbs on advertising and other tactics that lure young people. In a report issued at the end of August, the UN organization maintains […]
Travel from your couch with a drone
You can now travel around Switzerland – and neighbouring France and Italy – via a recently established site, TravelByDrone.com, that allows you to visit a town, prepare a hike, or plan a boat trip or skiing holiday, by first viewing the area from the air. The site currently comprises over 3,500 quality drone videos by […]
Housing: Going up or down?
Given a growing return migration of Swiss and expatriate residents from across the border in France, but also economic uncertainty in Switzerland itself, there appears to be a contradiction in the way property prices are moving. Nation-wide, prices have continued to rise in 2014 – albeit at a slower rate. The Lake Geneva region, however, […]
