Assistant State Secretary of Switzerland for Asia and Pacific, Ambassador Heinrich Schellenberg, is visiting China from 7 to 15 March, the first official visit from Switzerland to China in over three years. The programme includes stops in Hong Kong Shanghai and Beijing, meetings with business, culture, academia and government counterparts. On March 13, Ambassador Schellenberg had talks with Ambassador Wang Lutong, Director General of European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, on the resumption of in-person strategic dialogues between the two countries, and to prepare future ministerial visits. In Beijing, Ambassador Schellenberg gave a lecture at Tsinghua University on Swiss foreign policy in Asia with China in the spotlight after having a courtesy meeting with Professor Wang Hongwei, Vice President of Tsinghua University. 

Swiss logistics company Kuehne+Nagel is “very confident” in the Chinese economy thanks to the country’s optimization of COVID-19 prevention measures and its strong consumption power, its Asia Pacific president said, stressing the firm would continue to invest in the world’s second-largest economy. “China will continue to play a very important role for us,” Wong Siew Loong, president of Kuehne+Nagel for the Asia Pacific region, told Xinhua in a virtual interview from Shanghai. “I’ve always said this very openly: the world cannot live without China, and China cannot live without the rest of the world. It’s a very intertwined relationship that will continue to be there.”

Staring from March 1st, all China-bound travelers need to take a nucleic acid test OR an antigen test (rapid antigen self test kit is applicable) for COVID-19 within 48 hours before boarding, and can only travel to China when your test result is negative or after it turns from positive to negative. You are required to declare your negative test result to China Customs by filling the Health Declaration Form on the WeChat miniprogram of China Customs (scan the QR code below), or at https://htdecl.chinaport.gov.cn, or via the China Customs APP. At boarding time, airlines are not required to check if you have a negative result.

UBS Group AG is preparing to apply for a mutual-fund license in China, according to people familiar with the matter, becoming the latest Western bank to take advantage of Beijing’s relaxed rules on foreign financial institutions. The Swiss bank has held informal communications with the China Securities Regulatory Commission about its intention to apply, and plans to submit the application as soon as possible, some of the people said. UBS was the first foreign bank in China to take majority ownership of its local investment-banking unit, after regulators there scrapped the ownership limit in 2018. The rules were further loosened in late 2019, when China and the U.S. signed a landmark trade agreement that allowed investment banks, asset managers and credit-card companies to fully own their local operations. 

Since the door was opened for Chinese companies to list their shares in Switzerland last year, even the head of the Swiss bourse has been surprised at how popular the programme has proved to be. Nine companies have gone public in Zurich since the end of July, raising a total of $3.2 billion (CHF2.98 million) — far exceeding the total amount Chinese companies raised in the US in all of 2022. “I have to say I was a bit overwhelmed by how many and how fast this was going,” Jos Dijsselhof, chief executive of the Swiss Exchange (SIX), told Nikkei Asia in a recent interview. He was all the more surprised given that it was such a gloomy year for initial public offerings, with the global total value falling 71% from 2021 to $179.7 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The number of IPOs nearly halved to 1,671.

Swiss tech giant ABB will continue to make long-term investments in China as it is confident that the Chinese market will bring more opportunities to all participants, says James Zhao, senior vice president of ABB China.

In view of the now-eased local entry provisions, Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) is to resume passenger services to and from Mainland China. SWISS will initially offer one weekly non-stop flight between Zurich and Shanghai from 3 March. Service on the route should then be expanded to three weekly frequencies from April onwards. The flights will generally be operated using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, or alternatively Airbus A340-300. In addition to resuming its Zurich-Shanghai passenger flights, SWISS will also be increasing its service to and from Hong Kong from five to six weekly frequencies in the 2023 summer schedules.

Recently, Ambassador Jürg Burri, paid a visit to Guangdong. Together with the Consul General Philippe Praz, they visited factories, industrial parks and met with Swiss business community, the Ambassador felt the impulse of economic dynamics in the Greater Bay Area. The Ambassador visited Sika, a Swiss chemicals company with a leading position in the building sector and motor vehicle industry. At Sika’s Guangzhou factory, the Ambassador was briefed by Mr. Leo Zhang, President of Sika China, on Sika’s recent development in China, and toured the production plant. The Ambassador and the Consul General were impressed by Sika’s philosophy of sustainable development and its efforts to promote vocational education in China.

Swatch Group shares hit their highest level in nearly two-and-a-half years after the world’s biggest watchmaker said it expected a recovery in luxury demand from China. The maker of high-end Omega, Tissot and Longines timepieces as well as its eponymous mass-market plastic watches said sales in China in January had already exceeded the high levels seen in January 2022. The Swiss company said it expects record sales in 2023 boosted by the return of demand in China, Hong Kong and Macau, which was hit by the return of COVID-19 cases last year, and as Chinese tourists resume their travels.

On January 20, 2023, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that Chinese travel agencies and online tour operators would restart providing pilot outbound group tours. As per the ministerial notice, from February 6, 2023, Chinese travel agencies will be able to open outbound group travel for Chinese citizens to 20 countries – Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Fiji, Cuba, and Argentina.