In autumn the Swiss government started warning the population about possible energy shortages during the winter season. Due to the Ukraine war there was a serious possibility that we would not have enough gas or electricity to help us through the winter.

Companies, shops and people were encouraged to start saving energy like turning down the temperature a little during the cold winter months. Cities cut down on public lighting.

Indeed February has turned into a very cold month sometimes with temperatures well below -10°C. But meanwhile things look better than predicted. It seems the call for saving energy was really heard. And the feared energy shortage has not really happened so far.

Our homes are still warm and cozy. But the possibility of energy shortages is something that has not happened to this prosperous country as far back as anyone would remember.

The gas price is at a historic low. It just shows that much less gas has been consumed over the past weeks of the corona lockdown. And amazing how much environmental pollution has cleared up too. Switzerland has been under lockdown since March 16. The Swiss have strictly kept to social distancing guidelines and unless necessary haven’t much left their homes. And the measures have clearly slowed the increase of cases. Starting April 27 the Swiss government is carefully opening up our country with three measured steps. It is a difficult balance act of trying to limit the growing immense damage to the economy and saving lives.

While the coronavirus is still raging in certain areas in China, it has been very quiet here in Switzerland. We don’t have one known infection yet! But we are fully aware that the virus keeps spreading. The question is more, how much can it really be contained and controlled….

The impact of the virus in China is clearly felt on several fronts here too:
The media keep reporting, how the coronavirus is spreading. Facials masks are mostly sold out, even though no one is wearing them yet.
The economy is also clearly getting affected. Interlaken is one of the main tourist spots in Switzerland. There are no guests from China anymore. The Chinese restaurant in the picture was empty when I visited around 1pm!
The production of goods in China is affected. This has even an impact on global companies such as Apple and Co.

Our hearts go out to China, that is going through an extreme situation. We are looking forwards to the time, when guests from China are again able to enjoy the beauty of Switzerland strolling around leisurely without having to wear facial masks!

This mountain rises to a heights of 1289m. A cable car or also a rather narrow road leads up from the small city of St. Imier. This area is part of the French speaking bernese Jura. The rolling soft hills and the large meadows are characteristic for the Jura.

On Mont Soleil (in French „Sun Mountain“) is a center for research on wind and solar power. In the center are many different kinds and types of sun panels that convert sun rays into energy. And there are at least a dozen wind mills that generate additional power.

The larger windmills are quite spectacular with a heights of 150m. The rotor measures 112m! It weighs 410 tons and produces 3’300kW. The noise production of the rotor is less prominent than expected. When the sun shines the movement of the rotor blades can be a little distracting because of the moving shadow on the ground.

About 80 million Swiss Francs were invested into this project. The production of energy from Mount Soleil covers about 80% of the need of the 17’000 inhabitants in the area including industry.

In Switzerland about 35% of the electric power is generated by atomic plants and almost 65% by water hydraulic plants. The mountains are an ideal set up for the later.

There are guided tours at the information center of Mount Soleil, explaining how energy is produced through wind and direct sun power.

This annual car exhibition is one of the major international auto shows. It started way back in 1905. This year the show was held as usual next to the Geneva airport from March 8-18, attracting about 700’000 visitors yearly.

Almost 900 cars from Germany, Italy, France, Spain, UK, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Japan, Korea and the US were on display. The trend to alternatives to the combustion engine were a big topic. Many of the big brand names are in the process of switching to electric or hybrid cars. One example is the I-Pace from Jaguar, a very powerful challenger to Tesla.

There were quite a number of concept cars on display, trying to give a glimpse into the future of automobiles. The tendency again is clearly to vehicles that are totally automatic without the need of a driver.

China is well positioned and has growing experience with electric cars. It is not impossible the China will dominate the car market of the future!

Over the past few days it had been raining non-stop down in the lower areas of our country. However up in the mountains and especially in the Southern part of Switzerland (Valais and Graubünden) meters of snow have come down and covered everything. Some villages are cut off and people can only come and go via helicopters.

The picture was taken in the village of Davos by a friend of ours who lives there. Davos is also under a thick blanket of snow.

At the moment the village of Davos is again taken hostage by this years WEF. Last year the president of the PRC, Xi Jin Ping, attended the forum. This year the US president Trump is attending, along with many other important figures ranging from politicians to market leaders and trend setters.

In Switzerland the UBS is one of the biggest economic players that suffered a tremendous image loss and lost a a lot of money during the subprime mortgage crisis (Dec 07 to June 09). Meanwhile the bank has recovered its image and the money and is now again making a lot of money.

The Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) is a global finance service company and one of the biggest wealth management banks. By 2016 it was represented in 54 countries with over a 1000 branches. In Switzerland alone there are around 300 branches that cater to the needs of people from all walks of life and not just a wealthy clientele only. Most of their 1’250 ATMs are mainly in Switzerland. It’s e-banking is really excellent.

On a global scale the UBS competes with the other Swiss banking giant, the Credit Swiss. Since its recovery from the big crisis where the Swiss government had to bail out the bank it has overtaken the Credit Swiss. The UBS is among the top 10 of the world’s investment banks.

Switzerland is really a small country with quite a number of big players, such as the two huge Swiss banks (UBS and Credit Swiss), Nestlé, Glencore, Novartis, Zurich Insurance Group, Roche Group, ABB etc

The President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping has just arrived in Switzerland. The Swiss government treated him and his wife here in Berne with the highest honours.

Switzerland hopes for even better trade relations with China, which is our most important trading partner in Asia and the third most important partner after the EU and the US. The trade volume in 2015 was CHF 31 billion. An innovative strategic partnership was established during the visit by the President of the Swiss Confederation, Johann Schneider-Amman, in April 2016.

President Xi Jinping is actually attending the annual WEF (world economic forum). The WEF annual meeting is one of the most important economic and socio-political events in the world. It always takes place in Davos, in a mountain resort in the Southeast of Switzerland.

This year it takes place from January 17-20. Among the participants are not only the president of China, but also Theresa May of UK and other world leaders. Over 2’500 participants from more than 100 countries, 1200 economic leaders and quite a few stars meet in the lovely village of Davos. The official motto is „Responsive and Responsible Leadership“. The unofficial motto is rather „Brexit and Trump“.