There are a million questions that come up during an international move, and one of the most pressing for families is: Where do I send my kids to school? This is no simple question. Finding and vetting schools and arranging enrollment can be a challenge, and the choice of a school can shape a family’s social life and cultural adjustment.
Basel Stadt Rated Most Attractive Canton for Business; Shared Parental Leave Proposed In Basel; Power Company Experiments With Sustainable Energy; Switzerland Ranked Favorite European Destination by Asian Tourists
According to a recent study published by Credit Suisse, Basel Stadt has overtaken Zug to become the most attractive Swiss location for business. Canton Zug has been the undisputed leader ever since the cantonal ranking began in 1997. Economists developed the rankings by studying data from 110 economic regions in Switzerland and then analysing the tax burden on private individuals, legal entities, and special tax systems, such as lump sum taxation, the availability of specialist labour and other highly qualified staff, and other population and transport information. However, according to a Credit Suisse spokesperson, this year Basel Stadt jumped three places to overtake Zug after the canton significantly reduced its corporate tax rate to 13.04%. The bank notes that Basel's good transport connections and proximity to the French and German borders helped to boost its ranking, as it allows for the movement of highly qualified workers into Basel's businesses. Looking ahead to 2025, Credit Suisse economists believe that Zug – with its planned corporate profit tax reduction to around 12% – will probably return to the top of the ranking, followed by Basel Stadt and Zurich. Let's hope that Basel's economy continues to perform well and stays in the lead!
**********
Switzerland's standard maternity-leave rules require employers to grant 14 paid weeks off to mothers. A new proposal in Basel Stadt's cantonal parliament would extend the leave to 24 weeks. In addition, 8 weeks of that would be required for fathers, with the remaining 16 weeks allocated between both parents. The canton will now consider the rule for the next three months before proceeding to the ratification process.
**********
IWB - Basel's local power utility is testing a new system of carbon fixing which it claims will generate energy while also reducing its carbon footprint. Using what it describes as a Thermochemical Fission process, spokesperson Reto Müller described the process using Biomass based waste as an input to the process which fixes unusable gases into carbon that is delivered as fertilizer to farmers. In between, the useful gases are burned to generate energy. The test plant is scheduled to produce 570 tons of usable carbon-based outputs and heat for 300 homes in the 2020/2021 heating season.
**********
A new survey has revealed that Switzerland is the favoured European winter destination for Asian tourists. It found that 96 percent of respondents in India and 90 percent in China saying they prefer a holiday in this Alpine nation over other European countries, such as France. According to official numbers, there has been a big increase in tourists from Asia, particularly from China and India. In 2018, nearly one million Chinese visited Switzerland, and 348,000 came from India. These statistics are not surprising, as Swiss tourism officials work hard to attract Asian visitors. For example, Switzerland and its mountain scenery are very popular in India, as Swiss Alps have often been used as a backdrop for Bollywood films, while Switzerland Tourism, the country’s official tourism board, offers custom-made tours through the country’s most beautiful regions to lure upper middle class Chinese tourists. The Swiss Hotel Association has even published a special brochure on how “to best give Indian guests a warm welcome", demonstrating Swiss hospitality at its finest.