After winning an Academy Award and earning the Nobel Peace Prize, former American vice-president Al Gore will now receive an honorary doctorate from one of Switzerland’s finest research and technology institutions. On April 15, the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) will honor Al Gore for his work in promoting the issue of climate change. EPFL’s president praised Mr. Gore for bringing global warming to the forefront of public attention in the U.S.

Al Gore’s connections to Switzerland on the climate change issue have a long history. The University of Bern contributed to the research on the retreat of Alpine glaciers for Mr. Gore’s famous documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Mr. Gore was also co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize with the Geneva-based United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Most recently, Mr. Gore was in Switzerland to promote investment in sustainable companies presenting a new partnership between his company Generation Investment Management and Swiss private bank Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Company.

2007 marked another extraordinary year for Swiss-U.S. business relations, with North American companies investing in Switzerland at the highest rate in seven years. There were 48 new investments, 11 expansions of existing projects, and 32 investments involving M&A transactions and strategic alliances by North American companies. All of this activity signals the continued attractiveness of Switzerland as an investment location across a broad spectrum of industries.

Investors choose Switzerland for reasons reflected in the country’s ranking in key investment decision criteria. Switzerland ranks 2nd in the 2007-2008 Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum and 2nd in Europe in the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom published by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. For the sixth straight year, Zurich and Geneva respectively were considered the best cities in the world for quality of life according to the Mercer Human Resources 2007 Survey. In addition, Switzerland’s well-educated, multilingual and multicultural workforce also facilitates business dealings across the broader European market. The results are impressive: 7,000 foreign companies have operations in Switzerland.

Story courtesy: Location Switzerl
[Back to Press Releases Main]