Switzerland is a peaceful, prosperous, and stable modern market economy with a relatively low unemployment rate. It also, however, boasts of a highly skilled labor force and has a per capita GDP that is larger than that of other big Western European economies. It is amazing to see the economic success of the Swiss particularly when one considers the fact that most of the industries that it has are more service oriented. In an effort to come into conformity with the standards of the European Union, the Swiss have been forced to bring their economic practices up to speed in order to leverage their international competitiveness.
While Switzerland remains the proverbial safe haven for a number of investors and bankers, it has not remained idle in that role and has constantly improved upon its banking business model in order to maintain its lead over the rest of the market. As such, the bank secrecy practices have maintained the long-term value of the Swiss Franc relatively stable. It will be remembered that only a few years ago, the Swiss economy was stagnating as it felt the effects of the anaemic economic conditions of Europe. During this period, GDP growth stagnated during the 2001-03 period, improved during 2004-05 to 1. 8% annually and to 2.
9% in 2006. Even despite this, however, unemployment has remained at less than half the EU average. This success is largely attributed to the services sector of Switzerland. Being a land that is not as rich in natural resources as its other European neighbours, the services sectors (namely the banking and trading institutions) have managed to keep this country’s economy aloft even during the most challenging of times. As such, it is an economic model that a country such as Taiwan will be able to follow. Background The background of the study comes from the fact that Switzerland and Taiwan have certain similarities.
The success of the economic model of Switzerland despite its lack of ample natural resources is something that Taiwan can learn from. While Taiwan certainly has access to a number of natural resources, under the comparative advantage theory of David Ricardo, a country must learn to focus on its strength and produce only that commodity. As such, it is in the best interests of Taiwan to learn from the Switzerland economic model in order to maintain its economic success in Asia and the world. In this case, the commodity is providing a stable and solid services sector to the Asian region.
The growth of Asia will create a need for solid financial institutions such as those located in Switzerland and if Taiwan is able to meet this need it will be able to sustain a robust economic growth over a long period of time. Key Research Phases ° Economy background between Taiwan and Switzland ° The economy development of Switzland 1. Critical Internal Policies 2. Critical External Policies 3. . Important Internal Policies 4. Important External Policies 5. Beneficial Internal Policies 6. Beneficial External Policies ° The lessons and future goal of Taiwan Other Supporting Material
The main research material will come from research journals and studies on the Swiss Banking sector. There will also be particular focus on the economic model that is used by the Swiss. Again focus will be given on certain aspects such as the services sector which comprises a bulk of the GDP that Switzerland has annually. Interviews of key banking personnel as well as financial analysts, both local and foreign will also aid in the development of this research model. Finally, comparisons will be drawn between the Swiss and the Taiwanese banking models in order to ascertain the feasibility of such a goal.