Now that Switzerland’s free trade agreement with Hong Kong is in force, the Swiss business network Osec has opened a business hub in the Chinese metropolis to take advantage of its newly opened door to Swiss markets.
At the opening of Osec’s 19th global business hub, the organization’s president Daniel Küng called Hong Kong the “gate to China” and noted its importance as a regional melting pot for exports from Switzerland and the European Union. Hong Kong is Switzerland’s third-largest Asian trading partner, after China and Japan.
According to Osec, the Hong Kong business hub is intended “to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from Switzerland and Liechtenstein to enter the market in Hong Kong and to promote the location of Switzerland locally”.
Swiss exports to Hong Kong rose by 19 per cent last year to Sfr6.3 million ($6.75 million) and have seen a nearly 20 per cent jump in the first eight months of 2012. Exports to mainland China from Switzerland dropped by 15 per cent over the same time period.
Roughly half of Swiss exports to Hong Kong come in the form of watches, which are bought up by some 25 million Chinese tourists who cross the border into Hong Kong every year to purchase Swiss timepieces.
About 190 Swiss businesses are currently operating in Hong Kong, many of them banks, producers of luxury goods and trading companies, according to Osec. However, other export markets have had a harder time establishing themselves in the onetime British colony: chemical and pharmaceutical products make up barely six per cent of Swiss exports to Hong Kong, machinery products just five per cent.
According to Künz, those are exactly the types of markets that should benefit from the free trade agreement and the new business hub. He hopes the hub, which will be based out of the Swiss consulate in Hong Kong, will cater to small and medium-sized businesses in the biomedical engineering, electronics, information technology, multimedia and environmental arenas.
The new Swiss business hub will also be responsible for improving exports from Hong Kong to Switzerland, according to State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) president Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch who spoke at the new business hub’s grand opening. Over the past year, exports from Hong Kong to Switzerland increased rougly 3.1 per cent to Sfr1.15 billion.
The free trade agreement with Hong Kong was signed by Switzerland and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member states Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland in June of 2011. It went into effect about two weeks ago.
Osec operates business hubs in some 18 countries around the world. The first such hub was opened in Italy in 2001.