Switzerland has come top for the first time in the 33-year history of IMD’s World Competitiveness Ranking, in a year that reflected the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic competitiveness. Sweden came second (up from 6th last year) with Denmark in third spot (2nd in 2020) in a shakeup that saw European economies weather the health crisis better than most other regions. Completing the top five were the Netherlands (also 4th last year) followed by Singapore. Singapore took a tumble from the number one spot it had held for the previous two years. China comes 16th, up from 20th last year. The IMD World Competitiveness Ranking ranks 64 economies and assesses the extent to which a country promotes the prosperity of its people by measuring economic well-being through hard data and survey responses from executives. This year the rankings expose the economic impact of the pandemic across the globe. The report finds that qualities such as investment in innovation, digitalization, welfare benefits and leadership resulting in social cohesion have helped economies better weather the crisis, allowing them to rank higher in competitiveness.

The first edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival China will take place in Hangzhou, in the province of Zhejiang, from October 5th to 8th 2021. This new Festival licence will offer an eclectic programme on the theme “When West Meets East”, combining Chinese and Asian music and of course jazz, which has been enjoying a new lease of life in the country in recent years. This new partnership pursues the Montreux Jazz Festival’s desire to forge links with other continents and to mix different musical cultures. Hangzhou shares many similarities with the original Festival venue. A lakeside town and tourist destination, it is situated on the shores of the West Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as are the Lavaux vineyards and the audiovisual archives of the Montreux Jazz Festival. The balance between heritage and innovation is also at the heart of the values shared by the Festival and Hangzhou. The city combines a thousand-year-old culture with meteoric digital development, home to many companies engaged in digital transformation.

The World Intellectual Property Organization has crowned Switzerland the most innovative country in the world for the tenth consecutive year. Switzerland not only offers fertile ground for innovation, but also inspires many new creations, as the number of patent applications shows. For the past ten years, Switzerland has ranked top of the Global Innovation Index (GII). The Index is published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), French business school Insead and Cornell University. It ranks the performance of 130 countries, examining both the necessary conditions for innovation and the new creations that result from innovation. According to the report, Switzerland offers particularly fertile ground for innovation. It scored 69.42 points in the corresponding category of Innovation Input and ranks second in the world. The average in this category is 41.39 points. In addition to substantial investment in research and development, Switzerland’s strong position is due to the high quality of local universities and extensive human resources. Furthermore, it performed highly for its stable political environment, good regulatory environment and infrastructure. Switzerland is followed in the rankings by Sweden, the USA, the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark. China is ranked 14th in the world.

The eagerly anticipated data on economies’ competitiveness has gone live, opening discussions on changes in the hierarchy on a national, regional and global level. The annual rankings, now in their 32nd year, have been released unlocking a wealth of data on the performance of 63 economies across the globe. Singapore was number one for the second year in a row. In second to fifth place, in order, came: Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong SAR. A marked pattern in this year’s results, which are an amalgam of hard data taken from 2019 and survey responses from early 2020, is the strength of smaller economies. Arturo Bris, Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center and Professor of Finance, says, “The benefit of small economies in the current crisis comes from their ability to fight a pandemic and from their economic competitiveness. In part these may be fed by the fact it is easy to find social consensus.”

Switzerland is the safest country in the world right now for COVID-19. South Sudan is, according to a massive 250-page report, the most dangerous nation. The report is based on 130 quantitative and qualitative parameters and over 11,400 data points in categories like quarantine efficiency, monitoring and detection, health readiness, and government efficiency. It’s by the Deep Knowledge Group, a consortium of companies and nonprofits owned by Deep Knowledge Ventures, an investment firm founded in 2014 in Hong Kong. “Switzerland and Germany achieve the #1 and #2 positions in this new special case study specifically because of their economy’s resilience, and due to the careful ways in which they are attempting to relax lockdown and economic freezing mandates in a fact and science-based manner, without sacrificing public health and safety,” the study says. China ranked 7th in the list.

Switzerland has the most environmentally sound tourism record, according to a global comparison study by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The study ranks the alpine country as the 10^th most “competitive” holiday location overall against a broad range of criteria. The WEF ‘Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report’, conducted every two years, ranks 140 countries on their relative strengths in global tourism and travel. In 2018, it found Switzerland’s attention to environmental standards in the sector to be top of class. The study makes specific mention of Switzerland’s waste water treatment system and the country’s impressive record in the category “environmental regulatory enforcement and stringency”. Switzerland is also rated as one of the safest places in the world to visit and achieves high marks for its competitive business environment, low taxes and wealth of highly skilled workforce.

Every year, Lausanne-based IMD business school publishes its global competitiveness ranking. Switzerland climbed from 5th last year to 4th behind Singapore, Hong Kong and the US. Venezuela (63rd) was last. The ranking, established in 1989, incorporates 235 indicators and takes into account a wide range of “hard” statistics such as unemployment, GDP and government spending on health and education, as well as “soft” data from a survey of business leaders covering topics such as social cohesion, globalization and corruption. This information is used to calculate economic performance, infrastructure, government efficiency and business efficiency measures to give a final score for each country. Switzerland made the top 5 for government efficiency (2nd) and infrastructure (2nd). “In a year of high uncertainty in global markets due to rapid changes in the international political landscape as well as trade relations, the quality of institutions seem to be the unifying element for increasing prosperity. A strong institutional framework provides the stability for business to invest and innovate, ensuring a higher quality of life for citizens,” said Arturo Bris of IMD.

Zurich Airport has scooped third place in the ÒHandelszeitungÓ Airport Ranking 2018. In a repeated run of success, EuropeÕs best airport was beaten only by Singapore and Hong Kong. Anyone landing at Singapore Changi Airport will make it Òfrom airport to taxiÓ within 25 minutes, Òincluding immigration control, baggage collection and customs clearanceÓ, writes Claus Schweitzer in the Airport Ranking 2018 published by ÒHandelszeitungÓ. It has been Òthe worldÕs best airport for yearsÓ, and the only negative Schweitzer could find was the complicated WLAN access. In second place, Hong Kong International Airport boasts the Òattractive new The Deck lounge with open-air terrace and view over the airfieldÓ. But Zurich Airport too lays claim to an open-air area Ð and it is among the reasons the airport has once again scooped third place in the ranking. With Òaround 300,000 visitors annuallyÓ, the observation deck is Òone of SwitzerlandÕs most popular attractionsÓ, writes Schweitzer. While Zurich also scored well for its Òclear signage, predominantly pleasing passenger flow and exemplary connection to public transportÓ, Schweitzer and the frequent flyers surveyed for the ranking were unhappy with the time-consuming new Automated Border Control gates and the Skymetro, which is often overcrowded.

The town of Aigle in Switzerland will become the worldÕs wine capital in 2019. The travelling Concours Mondial de Bruxelles will host its next event there. The choice was announced on the last day of the 2018 competition, when Dai Binbin, Chief of the Haidian district of Beijing, China, solemnly handed over the Concours Mondial wine glass to FrŽdŽric Borloz, the Mayor of Aigle, Switzerland. ÒAfter Beijing, the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles is returning to its European origins, choosing Switzerland, where vines have been grown since the Roman Empire. The country ranks 5th worldwide for per capita wine consumptionÓ, commented Baudouin Havaux, Chairman of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. ÒSwiss wines are on the Concours MondialÕs top ten medal listÓ, he added. ÒOrganising a competition of such magnitude opens up a multitude of doors and provides invaluable visibility, all over the world. Aigle will be proud to host the Brussels World Competition and share the passion of making wine with professionals from around the globeÒ, commented the Mayor of Aigle FrŽdŽric Borloz. 2019 will be an exceptional year for the Swiss wine industry, as the country will also host the General Meeting of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) and the WinegrowersÕ Festival(Fte des Vignerons) in Vevey which has taken place once every 25 years since 1797.