Switzerland: About Switzerland - Part 2

From ExecutivePlanet.com

Some final remarks

The capital, Bern[e], and the two major business centres--Basel and Zürich--are German-speaking but Swiss German [Schwyzerdütsch] is very different from standard German [Hochdeutsch] and even a competent German-speaker will have difficulty picking up some of the many distinct dialects. Fortunately, the use of Schwyzerdütsch is usually restricted to private conversations or non-official situations and almost all German-speaking Swiss can use standard High German in more formal situations; certainly you will find that all documents etc. are written in standard German. Perhaps more importantly, the majority of German--or French-speaking Swiss businessmen are also accomplished speakers of English. The monoglot visitor may, however, find it more difficult to communicate in the Italian-speaking area [which includes Locarno and Lugano].

Geneva [Genève [French], Genf [German] or Ginevra [Italian]], on the other hand, is a truly international city that plays host to the headquarters of EFTA, GATT, the IRC and the WHO as well as ten other UN agencies. This internationalist outlook may seem surprising--Switzerland became a member of the UN only in 2002--and, despite the linguistic differences, it is indeed a strongly united country that prizes its long-standing independence and neutrality. Thus, although Switzerland's main trading partners by far [61% of exports and 80% of imports in 2002] are the members of the European Union [especially Germany], it has no immediate plans to join the EU after Swiss voters rejected opening talks on membership in a 2001 referendum. Membership of the EEA [a prelude to full membership of the EU] was equally rejected in a referendum in 1992, but Bern[e] continues to pursue a policy of co-operation with Brussels, particularly in the areas of free trade and free movement of labour, that is likely to lead to the opening up of the Swiss market, which has hitherto been highly regulated and dominated by anti-competitive cartels. The protectionism that the Swiss practise at home will presumably yield in due course to the principles of the free market that they embrace abroad. There is then an extensive range of bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU. The currency remains the strong Swiss Franc.

Submit a Comment on this Article