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| Sonja Wollkopf Walt, CEO of the Greater Zurich Area (GZA), speaks during an investment forum entitled "Beyond Korea: Internationalizing for Sustainable Success" at the Millennium Hilton Hotel, Thursday. / Courtesy of Edge Communications |
Members of the Greater Zurich Area (GZA) hosted an investment forum entitled "Beyond Korea: Internationalizing for Sustainable Success" at the Millennium Hilton Hotel Thursday.
The event showcased the Swiss region as one of the most vibrant economic centers in Europe for Korean businesses.
The forum included a welcome address by Claudio Mazzucchelli, a Swiss Embassy counselor and key speeches from Sonja Wollkopf Walt, CEO of GZA; Dr. Martin Hammert, professor of international business at Korea University; Marc Rudolf, representative of GZA; and Joachim Nowak, representative director of Nowak & Partners in Seoul.
Attended by more than 50 dignitaries from the private and public sectors, the speakers highlighted many of the benefits the GZA has to offer.
Strategically nestled in central Europe, Zurich is a "perfect location for reaching over 500 million Europeans, and offers a stable political system, an attractive tax system, liberal labor laws and excellent infrastructure ― all ideal for establishing a regional head office," the forum organizer said.
"The Greater Zurich Area is one of the prime business locations in the world ― now and in the future," said Sonja Wollkopf Walt. "Korea is a dynamic country with a rapidly growing global economy and the Greater Zurich Area is the perfect location to serve as a gateway into Europe for Korean companies."
Korea and Switzerland share a history of 50 years of bilateral relations and economic benefits.
During President Park Geun-hye's state visit to Switzerland in January, she signed a social insurance agreement.
The GZA is the leading business center in Switzerland due to its high quality of life and Zurich employs more than 1.5 million multilingual and international workers in 150,000 companies across industries such as life sciences, clean-tech and financial services.
With leading research institutes, the GZA is also recognized globally as a center of research and knowledge and maintains top-notch educational institutions such as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) and the University of Zurich.
Popular companies such as Google, IBM and Microsoft are headquartered in Zurich with major R&D centers there as well.
Zurich is sometimes referred to as the MIT of Europe.
The nonprofit GZA is the operational location marketing organization for the Greater Zurich Area economic region.
The organization attracts international companies abroad and advises them on everything from location evaluations to founding companies in Switzerland.
