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Centre of excellence for Swiss Foreign Trade Promotion.osec.ch
Export platforms –An Osec initiative.
As part of its export promotion service, Osec helps all Swiss and
Liechtenstein small and medium-sized businesses establish
and develop their business activities on international markets.
This includes free, individual and personal meetings with
consultants and regional experts, market research and analyses,
mediation of business partners, and participation in leading
international trade fairs. Additional promotional activities are
now possible thanks to the stabilisation measures approved
by the Confederation.
Osec: Conveying export know-how.
Competence and advice from Osec – the strong basis for export platforms.
Networking, mediating, marketing.
Investments are made in industries offering great potential for
growth worldwide. The export platforms are geared towards
specific initial business contacts. They supplement the services
offered by existing organisations or associations with a wide
range of export services. The export platforms are structured as
associations with the relevant bodies (executive board, office,
member meeting). Osec assists the export platforms during the
development phase, and then gradually as they become finan-
cially independent.
Osec uses the resources from the stabilisation programmes
I and III, which the parliament approved to support the export
industry, to develop export platforms. It thus makes it easier
for specific sectors containing a large number of innovative and
export-capable small and medium-sized businesses with
relatively high sales turnovers to gain access to future-oriented
export markets. Their export activities are often not yet struc-
tured industry-wide, meaning their export quotas are low. Via
the export platforms, the Swiss services are pooled, and foreign
demand is identified and efficiently brought together. Export
platforms improve company networking and the exchanging of
information in Switzerland and abroad. Joint family brands
strengthen the perception of Swiss small & medium-sized
businesses in the target markets.
Switzerland lives Cleantech – the world needs Cleantech.
The «Cleantech Switzerland» export platform offers infor-
mation, services and contacts to small and medium-sized
Swiss businesses from the Cleantech sector. It makes it
easier for them to enter the relevant, future-oriented Clean-
tech markets worldwide. The target markets are initially
China, India, North America and selected EU states (UK and
Poland). In doing so, the main focus is on establishing rela-
tionships with project administrators, investors, government
agencies and foreign firms, with the specific aim of ensuring
Swiss Cleantech businesses are awarded contracts. The
key elements of market cultivation are a web portal with a
company database, as well as business scouts and Swiss
senior industry advisers who systematically identify and filter
Cleantech projects and assign these to Swiss Cleantech
businesses. The «Cleantech Switzerland» export platform is
designed as a union of associations, pooling together the
interests of existing Cleantech associations and groups. The
businesses represented by the member associations, as well
as additional independent businesses, can register on the
platform for free, and thus benefit from its services.
The «ingenious switzerland» export platform promotes the areas
of architecture, engineering and design, as well as their projects
and products, at an international level. It draws attention to
these three important sectors abroad. It encourages co-operation
between the small & medium-sized businesses of architects,
designers and engineers in Switzerland, and promotes these
industries abroad under a joint family brand. «ingenious switzer-
land» helps them specifically acquire clients. The value-added
chain in the areas of architecture, engineering and design
covers a spectrum ranging from the big to the very small: from
regional planning to the building; from the manufacturer to the
service provider. The initial target countries are Germany, France
and Singapore. The aim is to be able to hand over the platform
to a private sponsor as a powerful export platform in three
years’ time after the initial phase co-funded by the Confedera-
tion is complete.
Cleantech includes technologies, processes, goods and services
which reduce environmental pollution and enable sustainable
usage of natural resources and systems. This includes the sub-
areas of sustainable resource management, resource protection
and emission reduction, renewable energies and materials,
efficient energy systems and applications as well as sustainable
mobility. The worldwide market volume for Cleantech in 2020
is estimated to be over 3 billion francs, corresponding to 5.5 %
to 6 % of the total GDP. Today, this percentage is 3.2 %.
For more information, visit:
www.cleantech-switzerland.com
Enormous potential for growth.
Clout thanks to competence – Swiss architecture/engineering/design.
By carrying out a wide variety of projects in the areas of
architecture, engineering and design, Switzerland is proving its
excellent work ethic, its reliability and its inventive talent –
all of which are typical Swiss traits. Numerous Swiss architects,
engineers and designers enjoy a fine reputation on the inter-
national stage, but the fields they represent are not sufficiently
known abroad. There are various reasons for this:
• Many small and innovative companies which are hardly
equipped to carry out projects abroad
• Numerous export hurdles (particularly for architects
and engineers)
• Unclear export awareness
• Lack of knowledge of export markets and lack of local
networking
For more information, visit:
www.ingenious-switzerland.com
Why architecture, engineering and design?
© ETH-Studio Monte Rosa/Tonatiuh Ambrosetti
Highly specialised Swiss medical technology for the global market.
Switzerland: the health destinationfor the highest demands.
© forteq Healthcare
The «Medtech Switzerland» export platform helps Swiss medical
technology companies open up foreign markets. Access to
often governmental or quasi-governmental health service pro-
viders is becoming noticeably more difficult due to increasing
regulatory requirements. The numerous smaller and medium-
sized Swiss medical technology manufacturers and suppliers
in particular are encountering difficulties with market access
outside Europe. Because apart from strengthening awareness
and technological leadership, regulatory knowledge and direct
access to decision-makers in the health industry are becoming
increasingly important competitive advantages. However, it is
essential for medical technology businesses to overcome these
export hurdles in order to trigger another growth spurt.
«Medtech Switzerland» pools the relevant, practical knowledge
of the target markets, and imparts it to the medical technology
providers. It also enables interested Swiss businesses to appear
on the market under the relevant «Medtech Switzerland» family
brand. The most important target markets apart from Europe are
the USA, China and Japan. As part of its activities, «Medtech
Switzerland» relies on Osec’s general export promotion meas-
ures, and uses its network and the Swiss Business Hubs. Third
parties are only called in by Osec abroad on a subsidiary basis.
After the current development phase, the export platform is set
to be supported privately within three to five years.
For more information, visit:
www.medtech-switzerland.com
The «Swiss Health» platform has been developed using resources
from stabilisation package I. The market for transnational
medical treatment has great potential worldwide, and is growing
rapidly. In 2007, over 40,000 foreign patients were treated
at Swiss hospitals. This also has a positive impact on tourism,
financial and other service providers. To ensure Swiss health
service providers can better exhaust business potential abroad,
Osec and Swiss Tourism have founded the «Swiss Health»
association with the aim of enabling clear positioning and
marketing of Switzerland as a health destination. Optimum
medical treatment options, political security, a very good
tourism infrastructure and excellent transport connections are
favourable pre-requisites to achieve this.
The most important target markets are Russia and the Gulf
countries. A series of major Swiss hospitals has now joined
the association.
For more information, visit:
www.swisshealth.ch
Swiss Business Hubs (SBH)
Lane KingstoneNorth America, Mexico, Caribbean
Target markets of the platforms.Pascal Blanc
Worldwide trade fairs
Thomas FoerstCentral and South America
Anna SiegBenelux, Scandinavia
Marc BuserEastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia
Katalin DreherCentral-Southern Europe
Michael KühnNorthern Europe
Beat KusterSouthern Europe
Sylvaine JaccardFrench-speaking Switzerland
Christian MinacciFrench-speaking Switzerland
Monica ZurfluhTicino
Ruedi BüchiAfrica, Middle East, Turkey
Jakob Heller, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal
Michel Miloda, China, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Korea
Rolf NollJapan, ASEAN
Successful Osec advisors – guaranteeing competent, networked consultancy.
Every export platform’s strategy includes
focus markets in which marketing of the
service is to be given priority. In doing so,
the export platforms work closely with
Osec in order to utilise synergies and
invest maximum effort in market-focused
campaigns.
The platforms’ export consulting is
guaranteed by successful Osec advisors
who are accredited specialists in their
markets and bring with them many years
of experience in various industries and
service sectors. They rely on a dense
network of competent partners within
Switzerland and abroad.
The international network includes 18
Swiss Business Hubs (SBH) established
in growth and focus markets. In Switzer-
land, Osec works with cantonal cham-
bers of industry and trade, chambers of
commerce, as well as with the cantonal
economics departments and funding
agencies. Both in Switzerland and abroad,
Osec maintains a worldwide network
of specialists («Pool of Experts») with
various skills in the area of exports and
internationalisation.
Germany, France, Singapore
North America, Europe, India, China
Middle East, Russia
USA, China, Japan, Germany, France, Netherlands
Export step-by-step – conquering foreign markets quickly and safely.
Step-by-step consulting.
In the Export Step-by-Step consultancy scheme, which is
geared both to customers of the export platforms and to the
classic Osec customers, the services are focused on the degree
of internationalisation.
Information
Osec’s extensive range of information serves as initial orientation.
As an official export promoter, it offers free information on a
number of export-related topics: The website brings together
information from Osec’s worldwide network. Among other
things, the Enterprise Europe Network provides information on
proprietary rights, standards and legal regulations in the EU.
The Pool of Experts recruits experts, and the Osec Service Cen -
tre answers questions on all aspects of exporting by telephone.
Consultancy
In the consultancy phase, Osec assesses specific export plans
with small & medium-sized businesses. The export advisors and
specialists from the target markets discuss the prospects of the
export idea with the small & medium-sized businesses at a free,
initial consult. Carefully evaluation of the target markets, as well
as their market structures, purchase behaviour, legal framework
conditions, regulations, customs and taxes etc. can then begin.
Osec provides assistance with concrete implementation of
export projects, e.g. by recruiting partners to find distributors,
open branch offices or look for staff.
Contacts
Based on its extensive network, Osec quickly provides small &
medium-sized businesses with access to success-related
contacts. It can thereby organise an exchange of information
with Swiss firms already working successfully in the target
market. Osec systematically recruits reliable business partners,
or creates access to important decision-makers at governments
and authorities.
Osec
Stampfenbachstrasse 85
P.O. Box 2407
CH-8021 Zurich
Telephone +41 44 365 51 51
Fax +41 44 365 52 21
Cleantech Switzerland
Herrenacker 15
CH-8200 Schaffhausen
Tel. +41 52 560 06 22
Fax +41 52 674 06 09
ingenious switzerland
Selnaustrasse 16
CH-8001 Zurich
Tel. +41 44 283 15 15
Fax +41 44 283 15 16
Copyright © Osec November 2010. All rights reserved.
Our hotline: 0844 811 812www.osec.ch
Medtech Switzerland
Wankdorffeldstrasse 102
P.O. Box 261
CH-3000 Bern 22
Tel. +41 31 335 62 41
Fax +41 31 335 62 24
Swiss Health
Baarerstrasse 112
P.O. Box 2428
CH-6302 Zug
Tel. +41 58 252 51 51
Fax +41 58 252 51 99
