Follow @dorgang

Category Archive: 3) Swiss Markets and News

Main Author Investec

Investec is a distinctive Specialist Bank and Asset Manager. We provide a diverse range of financial products and services to a niche client base in three principal markets, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia, as well as certain other geographies. Investec’s strategic goals are motivated by the desire to develop an efficient and integrated business on an international scale through the active pursuit of clearly established core competencies in the group’s principal business areas.

My articles My site About me My books
Follow on:LinkedIN Twitter Amazon

Filter archive by: Show All Show only Articles Show only Videos

A just democracy is a robust democracy

2021-11-24

Polarisation, social divisions, distrust and inequality: How can people in democracies push back against the negative dynamics emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic? At the International Forum Zofingen, SWI swissinfo.ch asked international and Swiss democracy experts for some answers to some fundamental challenges facing today's democracies. This includes perspectives from Matt Qvortrup, Coventry University/UK, Estefania Cuero, diversity...

Read More »

Improving conditions for Swiss nurses

2021-11-15

Swiss nurses are calling for better working conditions in an initiative being put to the vote on November 28. It was launched by the Alliance of Healthcare Professions, grouping more than 10 professional and trade union organisations. The Alliance wants the government and the cantons to beef up nurse training and guarantee certain working conditions and salary rates. The government says the initiative goes too far. --- swissinfo.ch is the...

Read More »

Covid certificate – keep it or ditch it?

2021-11-12

Is the Covid certificate worth keeping? A vote on 28 November 2021 will decide. The Swiss will be asked whether they accept laws passed earlier this year that paved the way for the introduction of the certificate. The system provides proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative test. It’s the second time a vote has been organised to challenge the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In summer, voters were given a chance to reverse the...

Read More »

How Switzerland is trying to combat climate change

2021-10-29

The climate strike wave that Greta Thunberg started also swept through Switzerland. While young people from all over the country participate in Fridays for Future events, dozens of start-ups are developing technologies to combat climate change. Part two of our explainer video looks into how the country goes about reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, the green parties promising climate action made historic...

Read More »

The reality of climate change in Switzerland

2021-10-29

In landlocked Switzerland temperatures are rising faster than in regions that benefit from the ocean's cooling effect. The first explainer video of our two-part series shows how climate change is affecting the Swiss landscape, the economy and its people. While global average temperatures are 0.85 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, Switzerland has seen an increase of two degrees over the same period. Since 1850, its glaciers have lost 60%...

Read More »

Carbon offsetting explained in 2 minutes

2021-10-26

Countries lower their carbon footprint and become climate neutral by limiting the amount of greenhouse gases they produce and by compensating the emissions that can't be cut. The carbon offsetting market has become increasingly attractive for countries, companies and individuals, who finance projects that will either suck CO2 out of the atmosphere, or reduce the CO2 release. This is done by buying carbon offsets. Carbon offsetting will be a...

Read More »

Living in Switzerland as a Muslim

2021-10-12

The Swiss population has voted in favour of banning face coverings, in a vote known as the 'burka ban', in March 2021. They had already voted in favour of banning the construction of minarets in November 2009. What is it like to grow up, and live, as a Muslim in Switzerland? Muslims are the third largest religious community in the small Alpine nation. Despite this, its members say they still face discriminations because they believe in Islam. We...

Read More »

Simona Aebersold, on being a world orienteering championships medallist and student

2021-10-05

Simona Aebersold is 23 but has been running through forests and fields since she was a kid - her mom and dad are former top athletes and got her into orienteering very young. A 7-times world championship medallist, Simona is also a student at the University of Bern, where she's getting a degree in Sports science and Psychology. We met her in her garden, and she told us how she manages to balance her training sessions, competitions and exams. ---...

Read More »

A giant water battery in the Swiss Alps

2021-09-07

The amount of electricity that can be stored thanks to the new pumped-storage and turbine power station in Nant de Drance, canton Valais, could charge more than 400,000 electric car batteries. Its director explains the role of this "water battery" for electricity supply and grid stabilisation in Switzerland and Europe. “The electric storage capacity of the reservoir surpasses that of 400,000 electric car batteries,” explains Alain...

Read More »

An alternative life of Swiss luxury

2021-08-31

Thomas Brunschwig leads an unconventional life. He is a self-confessed outsider who has found his sustainable, spiritual paradise in a Bernese farmhouse filled with various Indian and Chinese instruments and sculptures – and four zebu cattle. The zebu produce neither milk nor meat. In fact he says the only useful thing they produce is dung, the fuel of fire in the Vedic religion. “Technically, if I calculate the income from selling dried cow pats,...

Read More »

Afghan women face an uncertain future

2021-08-27

One of the big questions since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan is what will become of Afghan women. When the militant group last ruled the country, women and girls were barred from schools, universities and jobs, and had to veil from head to toe in public. The Swiss-based non-profit group Geneva Call has been active in Afghanistan for several years, trying to improve the protection of women in particular. Marie Lequin, Head of the Eurasia...

Read More »

Covid vaccinations in schools

2021-08-24

Aargau is the first Swiss canton to offer mobile vaccination centres for older pupils on school grounds. The aim is to boost the vaccination rate among 16- to 19-year-olds in the canton, which currently stands at 43%, as well as to stem the number of coronavirus outbreaks in schools. More than 200 pupils tested positive for the virus in the first week of term. Schools in the northern canton were the first to go back after the summer holidays on...

Read More »

Deepfake hunters

2021-08-17

Deepfakes are often used in ads and films, for instance when actors play younger versions of their characters. However, the technology also offers high potential for misuse. A spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne is using AI and deep learning to create software to help specialists detect fraud. Artificial intelligence helps detect anomalies inside images. The software then marks any manipulated areas. Detectors are also...

Read More »

The grand old man of Swiss alpinism

2021-07-27

Meet Marcel, father of the legendary Swiss climbers Claude and Yves Remy. Marcel may be 98 years old, but he’s still climbing. You can see him in action here at the climbing centre in Villeneuve on the eastern shores of Lake Geneva. Marcel Remy spent all his free time in the mountains, taking his two sons with him. Claude and his brother Yves inherited Marcel’s determination and resilience. The Lausanne-born hard-rock lovers opened and outfitted...

Read More »

Inbreeding hits bearded vultures in the Alps

2021-07-20

Switzerland is celebrating the reintroduction of 50 Bearded Vultures to the Swiss Alps. It’s 30 years since the programme began in the Swiss Wildlife Reserve near Melchsee-Frutt in central Switzerland. The Bearded Vulture used to be widespread in large parts of the Alps but was hunted to extinction towards the end of the 19th century. The wild population is growing in the cantons of Valais and Graubünden, but the raptors in central Switzerland...

Read More »

Why is Switzerland important in the commodity trading sector?

2021-07-07

Tiny landlocked Switzerland is a big player in the commodity trading business. The country's involvement in this industry can be traced back to the 15th century, when its ideal central location had merchants from all over Europe meeting on its city square to exchange goods. Today, commodities are shipped around the world in huge container ships, and the trading mostly happens in climatised offices, far away from the mines and ports. Giants such...

Read More »

Diplomatic back channels: years of USA-Syria talks in Geneva

2021-07-06

Stretching over several decades, meetings in Geneva between American presidents and Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, raised hopes of peace in the Middle East. The situation at the end of the 1960s in the Middle East is tense. Israel and the Arab states are at war. Syria clashes against Israel over occupied territories in the Golan Heights. The US hopes to stabilise the region by strengthening ties with Arab nations. It is in Geneva that...

Read More »

Icy relations warm up in Geneva

2021-06-17

The handshake between US-President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin between made headlines in Geneva on Wednesday. The atmosphere of their meeting was described as “warm”. The summit took place amid a huge security operation involving thousands of police and military personnel. The lake and parts of the city became no-go zones. swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is...

Read More »

How Geneva is preparing for Biden and Putin

2021-06-15

Geneva will be hosting the first presidential meeting between the American president Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Preparations are underway. As the host country, Switzerland will be deploying its good offices and taking all the necessary measures to ensure that talks, which start on June 16, can take place as safely and as discreetly as possible. Issues which have contributed to a rise in tensions between the United...

Read More »

How robot cars may transport freight under Switzerland

2021-06-08

Cargo sous terrain, or underground cargo, is a futuristic Swiss freight project aimed at relieving pressure off existing roads and other infrastructure. The plan is to build a 500-kilometre network of tunnels linking production sites and logistics hubs in Switzerland’s biggest cities.

Read More »