Remarks by Ambassador Sibi George at the Launch of India Business Information Center in Zurich, Jun 15, 2019
Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning.
I stand before you today with a lot of satisfaction, when I see the functioning of our Consular Service office in Zurich. I recall that one of the first proposals that I received from our Indian community in Zurich is to start consular service in this city. I am happy to note as part of the initiative of ‘Indian Embassy Home Away’ we are able to open this service in Zurich in Nov last year. I am very happy to see it functioning successfully.
In the last few years we maintained highest level of engagement with Switzerland. We have three summit level visits in the last two years. Prime Minister visited Switzerland in June 2016 and January 2018. Swiss President visited India on a State visit in August 2017. Swiss Foreign Minister was in New Delhi and Varanasi in August 2018. We have celebrated 70th anniversary of signing of Friendship Treaty between India and Switzerland with a festival of India covering several cities of Switzerland. Under the theme ‘Connecting Himalayas with Alps’ we are celebrating India in Switzerland, throughout the year. At this time when I speak to you a team from Embassy is at Lugano organising International Day of Yoga celebrations. Of course, our Indian Cultural Network, Indian Professionals Network and Thematic Library have generated interests all over Switzerland attracting new faces of Indian Diaspora and Swiss friends particularly youth to Embassy activities and Indian culture.
While we continued our efforts to expand our consular activities to assist Indian Diaspora and our cultural outreach to engage our Swiss friends, in addition to Yoga and Ayurveda and Bollywood, we have been working to promote the economic and commercial engagement between India and Switzerland. I am happy to note that the MISSP program to support Small and Medium companies to engage with India has yielded positive results with over fifty Swiss companies have agreed to start engagement with Indian companies for investment, joint venture and close collaboration.
Under the leadership of a forward looking stable government India is continuing its transformational journey. In this economic transformation, India regards Switzerland and Swiss companies as natural partners. There is vast scope to combine our relative advantages, in capital, technology, science and human resources, and to work for mutual benefit. India’s Flagship Programmes like Make in India, Smart Cities, Digital India, Swachh Bharat (Clean India), Startup India, Skill India and other initiatives are resonating well in this land of innovation and competitive edge. We are seeing a new interest in many Swiss companies in engaging with India. In 2019, under the MISSP program we propose to reach out to 2000 new companies for concrete engagement with India. This is in addition to various events and activities planned as part of the India Year of Tourism and India Year of Science and Technology that we celebrate in Switzerland this year.
I am happy that we are taking the initiative of setting up and Indian Business Information Center today at Zurich. It is a small beginning to coincide with our Consular Services.
I thank you for participating its inauguration, SICC President Mr. Philippe Reich, President of India Group in Swiss Parliament Nik Gugger and all others present here today.
Thank you
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