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Indo-Swiss business--then & now.

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Business ties between India and Switzerland have been developing and strengthening over the last few years. Ashwin Merchant, Deputy Director of the Swiss Business Hub (India), provides Swiss News with an in-depth look at the economics between the two countries.

Swiss News: Since when have India and Switzerland been involved economically and what are the major business tie-ups between them?

Ashwin Merchant: Indo-Swiss bilateral trade relations route back to February 1851 when the Volkart Brothers established "traders and agents" offices in Bombay and Winterthur. (While Salomon Volkart managed the Winterthur office, Johann Georg Volkart ran the office in Bombay.) Then came along major Swiss corporates like Brown Boveri & Cie (before its merger with Asea), Sandoz and Ciba Geigy (before the formation of Novartis), Roche (which sold its manufacturing operations some years hack but still maintains offices in India), Nestle (which is very successful), SGS, etc.

Post liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991, other Swiss companies like Mettler Toledo, Endress + Hauser, Schindler, Rieter, Sulzer, Buhler, Kuoni-to name a few-started operations in India. More recently, Unique Airport, Zurich, is partnering a consortium led by Siemens and Larsen & Toubro for the development of Bangalore's new international airport. Unique is scheduled to manage the airport on its completion.

Swiss companies have also been outsourcing components from India or setting up back-office operations (especially software related), e.g. Swiss Re.

There is also a steady trend in Indian firms--especially in the software sector-of setting up branches in Switzerland. This is in addition to the already established operations of major Indian corporate houses like Tatas, Birlas, Mafatlals and JK Group.

Indian garment exporters are also eyeing this potential, keeping in mind that Switzerland does not impose any quota restrictions. However, they face the problem of "value-addition" in Switzerland to convert their product into a "Swiss" product before exporting it further into the larger EU market.

SN: Which are the other industrial sectors that see better potential of tie-ups with India?

Merchant: There is a gradual trend in joint ventures by Swiss software firms in India over the last couple of years, that could be attributed to the successful implementation in 1992 of the (former) Swissair's revenue accounting arm, i.e. Airline Financial Support Services Ltd. in Mumbai, and the joint venture of Atraxis (another company of the ex-SAir Group).

Also, the insurance sector in India has recently opened up to private players. So far only Swiss Re has set up offices here (in Mumbai and Bangalore). Banks like UBS and Credit Suisse First Boston are active in India in equity brokering and investment banking. A recent entrant is Zurcher Kantonal Bank that is active in the field of trade financing.

Switzerland Tourism opened its offices in India in 1996. This, along with Kuoni's purchase of India's biggest two tour operators, has rendered outbound tourism to Switzerland a fillip...

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