Category Archive: 3.) Swissinfo Business and Economy

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Big Swiss companies obliged to report on climate risks from 2024

2021-08-19

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2021-08-19

From 2024, large Swiss firms will be legally bound to report on their climate-related risks. The government has now published guidelines on which companies and which risks will be involved.

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Deepfake hunters

2021-08-17

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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...

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Can China help African cocoa producers outmanoeuvre Big Chocolate?

2021-08-17

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2021-08-17

In a bid to grab a bigger slice of the chocolate pie, cocoa-producing countries Ivory Coast and Ghana are turning to China for funding and a new marketplace. The move could pose a threat to the Swiss chocolate industry’s profit margins and its supply of raw materials. 

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Businesses urged to back Swiss Covid-19 vaccination strategy

2021-08-16

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2021-08-16

Health Minister Alain Berset has urged companies to back the government’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign, arguing it is in the economy's interest to get as many people vaccinated as possible.

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Risk of housing bubble in Switzerland persists

2021-08-11

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2021-08-11

A report by the leading Swiss bank UBS has found an increased risk of a real estate bubble forming in Switzerland’s housing market. The UBS Swiss real estate bubble index has risen from 1.78 to 1.90 points, in the second quarter of 2021, remaining in the ‘risk zone’, according to a report published on Tuesday.

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Chocolate, gold, human rights: what’s the Swiss Connection?

2021-08-10

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2021-08-10

We take a deep dive into what one country – Switzerland – is doing to honour the United Nations principles on business respects human rights.

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Credit Suisse to face ‘tuna bonds’ trial

2021-08-05

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2021-08-05

The bank will face a trial over its role in Mozambique’s $2 billion (CHF1.8 billion) “tuna bonds” scandal, a fresh blow as it struggles to shake off a succession of crises that have plagued the group in recent years.

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Swiss think it’s vital that other people reduce CO2 emissions

2021-08-04

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2021-08-04

A majority (70%) of Swiss believe it’s important to avoid emissions in their everyday lives, although fewer are likely to back up their views with action, according to a survey.

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Rising numbers of hikers and bikers boost Swiss economy

2021-08-03

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2021-08-03

Numbers engaging in outdoor activities like walking, cycling or mountain biking continued to rise in Switzerland in 2019, the Federal Office for Roads (ASTRA) has reported. This is also good news for the economy.

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Why some wealth managers hate wealth

2021-08-02

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2021-08-02

“How can we [ . . .] fight increased inequality?” railed Ralph Hamers in a recent interview. To be clear, Hamers is not the boss of Unicef, or Oxfam or the Social Mobility Foundation. He is chief executive of Swiss bank UBS, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the widening wealth gap.

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The grand old man of Swiss alpinism

2021-07-27

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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...

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Credit Suisse reaches deal with former employee in spying case

2021-07-27

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2021-07-27

The Swiss bank and its former top manager Iqbal Khan have agreed to end all pending criminal proceedings in a 2019 spying affair that toppled the company’s top brass. Speaking to the Reuters news agency, a spokesperson for Credit Suisse confirmed a report in the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that, following an agreement between “all parties”, the matter was now closed.

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Tourism sector will take decades to recover from pandemic

2021-07-26

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2021-07-26

The president of the national marketing body Switzerland Tourism says the year 2021 is on course to be even worse than 2020, with 5% fewer hotel stays expected. "This is not good news, because 2020 was the worst year in history" for the sector, Martin Nydegger told the newspaper SonntagsZeitung.

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Google challenges Swiss data cloud contract decision

2021-07-23

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2021-07-23

Google has appealed a recent Swiss decision to award a cloud-computing contract to five other digital firms. The tender process has also come under criticism by defenders of data sovereignty.

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Honey production collapses in Switzerland

2021-07-22

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2021-07-22

The short spring and wet summer means Swiss bees have produced ten times less honey than usual. As a result the price of honey is set to increase. After last year’s exceptional harvest, 2021 is looking very meagre: while a hive normally produces 15-20 kilos of honey, the current figure is 0-3 kilos, Swiss public radio, RTS, reported on Thursday.

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Has a new price premium on cocoa really helped struggling African farmers?

2021-07-21

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2021-07-21

Farmers in Ivory Coast - the world’s largest cocoa-producing nation - are getting less for their cocoa despite the introduction of a payment that aims to secure them a living wage.  

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Inbreeding hits bearded vultures in the Alps

2021-07-20

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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...

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Central Switzerland braces itself for another ‘flood of the century’

2021-07-18

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2021-07-18

Lakes and rivers in central Swiss cantons such as Bern and Lucerne have reached dangerous levels, and more rain is forecast for Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday authorities in canton Bern said water levels on Lake Thun, Lake Biel and in the city of Bern would significantly exceed flood limits in the coming days.

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Shares in Picasso painting go up for grabs in blockchain sale

2021-07-17

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2021-07-17

Fans of Pablo Picasso will soon be able to own a share in one of his paintings for less than $6,000 (CHF5,500) – although that won’t actually buy them the right to see the work, which will be stored under lock and key in Switzerland.

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Bern braces itself for another ‘flood of the century’

2021-07-15

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2021-07-15

Canton Bern expects water levels on Lake Thun, Lake Biel and in the city of Bern to significantly exceed flood limits in the coming days. On Lake Biel it’s possible the situation will be similar to the flood of the century in 2005.

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