Dear Members and Friends

A few days ago, we entered the first phase of the end of the lockdown in Switzerland. Many questions remain, and many steps will have to be taken until the restrictions on the economy and our daily lives can be lifted entirely.

Many of these answers must be provided by scientists. Those of you familiar with science research know that there is no single and straightforward approach. Many avenues must be taken – and given up –, until scientifically proven answers are found. In order to be successful, the science community needs to cooperate on all levels. Time is essential and global coordination is a must to save lives and limit the economic damage world-wide. With its large life science and health care industry, Switzerland is well positioned to help the international community to understand the Covid-19 situation and to find answers.

Sometimes, many of us – and especially the media – are not patient enough to let this process unfold. But interpretations of early results can be misleading. The world needs to find an affordable solution that works with as few side effects as possible. Only then are we safe again and can lift all restrictions in place now. At this time, patience and persistence are virtues in high demand.

With China further along the way in restarting the economy, we should seek what lessons can be learned. The SCCC has organized several webinars on that topic, others will take place in the next few weeks (check out the SCCC website). One key takeaway from these webinars is that logistics are still a major challenge, resulting in higher transport costs and longer transport duration. In addition, the need for new routes may eliminate the benefit of Free Trade Agreements, impacting the place of origin and leading to higher costs due to taxes and custom fees.

Another takeaway is that higher inventories are built up along the supply chains. This increases end-product costs and working capital levels. For organizations still in lockdown and without income, liquidity challenges have severely increased.

The current lockdown calendar for Switzerland will make it impossible to hold our AGM as scheduled on May 14, 2020. Therefore, we have moved the AGM date to September. We will inform you in detail as soon as possible.

Please check our website for updates on Covid-19 webinars and do not hesitate to contact us via email in case of any questions. We do our best to support you in these difficult times.

Best regards and stay healthy,

Felix Sutter

The Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (SCCC) is delighted to welcome Roger Bieri as new member of the SCCC Advisory Board.

Roger Bieri is Head Corporate & Institutional Clients – Multinationals & Strategic Transactions at UBS Switzerland AG Zurich. He replaces Andreas Kollegger as UBS representative at the SCCC. As an experienced risk manager and specialist for strategic transactions, he will add valuable knowledge and insights to the SCCC and its members. Roger will assume his position as Advisory Board member as of May 1, 2020, and he is looking forward to actively supporting the SCCC members and helping shape the future of the SCCC.

We just created our instagram page – swisschinesecham – and would love to share our insightful content with you. We will mainly post news about China, useful tips for businesses, updates about upcoming events and interviews of our members.

You can follow us by scanning the below code on Instagram directly!



Chuān xīn xié, zǒu lǎo lù