Philippines, Swiss trade promotion

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine-Swiss Business Council (PSBC) has signed an agreement with Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE) to work together on trade promotion efforts.

The cooperation pact was signed by S-GE chief executive officer Simone Wyss Fedele, S-GE Head of Global Network Thomas Foerst and Christine Fajardo, who serves as PSBC chairperson and Novartis Philippines corporate affairs head.

Swiss Ambassador to the Philippines Alain Gaschen also signed the agreement as a witness to represent the Swiss federal government’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

Under the agreement, PSBC, in coordination with the Embassy of Switzerland in the country, will provide Swiss and Liechtenstein companies interested to do business in the Philippines with free basic services, including information and initial consultation.

PSBC may also implement individual projects for Swiss and Liechtenstein companies commissioned by S-GE.

It serves as a channel for initiating and facilitating business-related and networking activities to further the growth of trade and investment between the Philippines and Switzerland.

The council is composed of 65 members covering Swiss equity companies in the Philippines and Philippine firms with business relations or keen to pursue business with Switzerland.

S-GE, meanwhile, is mandated by the SECO to support Swiss small and medium enterprises to go global and help foreign companies to set up their presence in Switzerland.

Fajardo said PSBC shares S-GE’s aim of facilitating trade promotion.

“Our partnership with S-GE will enable PSBC to support Swiss companies and help innovative Philippine companies to take root in Switzerland thereby creating added value and prosperity. We thank the Swiss Embassy for helping make our cooperation agreement with SG-E possible,” she said.

For his part, Gaschen said the cooperation agreement is timely given the renewed interest in the Philippines from Swiss companies as a potential investment destination.

“This means more business promotion activities and in-depth market researches, which open up more opportunities and collaborations between Filipinos and Swiss entrepreneurs in the years ahead,” he said.