IS S U E 44 Switzerland Newsletter N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 2 Japan External Trade Organization Inside this Japanese industrial group TICO acquired USTER issue Headquartered in the city where gion of Nagoya, TICO manufac- its name comes from (Uster, tures and sells textile machinery Japanese in- 1 Canton of Zurich), Uster Tech- in the areas of spinning and dustrial group TICO acquired nologies is specialized in quality weaving; it is the leading manu- USTER measurement and certification facturer of air jet weaving looms. Japan’s cur- 2 for the textile industry. It has TICO has its European Sales and rent economic been acquired by the Japanese Service office in the same city as situation group Toyota Industries Corpo- USTER. “We have been Switzerland 2 ration (“TICO”) in May 2012. neighbors since 2004”, said Dr. and Japan Dr. Geoffrey Scott, CEO of Scott. It acquired 22% of USTER strengthens their scientific USTER, joined the company 13 in 2009 and acquired a total of cooperation years ago. “I have worked for Geoffrey Scott, 99.4% of its shares in May 2012. CEO of Uster Technologies Switzerland 2 high-tech measure and test in- As an industrial investor, TICO revised its strumentation companies has a long-term view and an un- regulation on throughout my almost 40 year USTER invests on average 10% derstanding of USTER business imports of foodstuffs business career. During this time to 12% of sales in innovation. environment. Moreover, “they I have had frequent contact and Furthermore, according to Dr. also share other values which are Partnership 3 agreement relationships with Japanese Scott, “USTER specialists are important to USTER, including between Ge- companies, either as suppliers or acknowledged experts in their a strong belief in the power of neva and Tsu- as customers”, Dr. Scott said. field providing unrivalled know- innovation, customer focus, City how, ability and ideas. We have quality, and employee develop- Successful 3 a long established reputation as seminar on Optimizing quality and costs ment to maintain a sustainable Japanese inno- of textile production a reliable business partner, and business. The strategic fit of our vations as market leader, we offer a com- two businesses is excellent and Nissan re- 4 Uster Technologies supplies pelling value proposition to our there are opportunities for syn- leased updated customers”. ergies in markets and technology Leaf testing and monitoring instru- ments, systems and services that Its net sales increased rapidly sharing”, argued Geoffrey Scott. help to optimize quality and cost from CHF 130 million in 2010 to What will be the changes in the through each stage of textile CHF 188 million in 2011. As ex- management of USTER? “There production, from raw material – plained by Geoffrey Scott, the will be no significant changes. natural fiber or synthetic – to world’s textile manufacturing TICO has stated that they in- finished fabric. market is a cyclical one, and 2011 tend to operate Uster Technolo- 会見 While the textile production has was the last peak in the cycle. gies as an independent subsidi- INTERVIEW shift from Europe to Asia, ary. They have seen how the cur- USTER remains among the lead- TICO supports the long-term rent management has developed ers in quality measurement and development of USTER the business in the past 10 years certification processes. and they want ensure further Its success relies on its ability to Founded in 1926 and headquar- development and success in the invest and its reputation. tered in Kariya City, in the re- future”, he further said. Page 2 JETRO Switzerland Newsletter Japan’s current economic situation The Japanese economy has been ever, exports to North America 動向 weakening due to the slowdown of rose 3.4%. SITUATION its exports, whereas the domestic The domestic demand remains economic situation is slightly im- strong. The average of consump- proving. tion expenditures per household Japan’s GDP shrank 0.9% during was ¥299,821 in September, up the July-September period com- 0.3% in nominal terms and up pared to the previous quarter (see 0.6% in real terms from the previ- graph). ous year. Furthermore, the unem- This evolution results mainly from ployment rate was 4.2% in Sep- the decline of its exports. They tember, down 0.7% from the previ- were down 6.5% in October 2012 ous year. 63.1% of University stu- over the year. Exports to Asia de- dents who will graduate in March clined 4.9% (-11.6% for China, 2013 have already found a job on -3.2% for South Korea); exports to October 1, showing an increase by Growth rates of Gross Domestic Products (GDPs) compared to previous quarters, Western Europe fell 23.5% 3.2% from the previous year. seasonally adjusted (-46.2% for Switzerland). How- OECD Switzerland and Japan strengthens their scientific cooperation 政策 Switzerland and Japan signed in the cooperation. As a result of this Technology (JST) will collaborate 2007 an agreement on cooperation collaboration, Japan is now the with the Federal Institute of Tech- POLICY in science and technology. The main Asian partner of Switzerland nology of Zurich (ETHZ) in the joint committee, which gathered for academic researchers. course of the coming three years. in November 2012 in Tokyo, un- Switzerland invested about CHF The Swiss National Science Foun- derlined the successful coopera- 2.3 million to sponsor 15 research dation will also enhance its col- tion during the period 2008-2012 projects. laboration with the Japan Society and decided to further strengthen Moreover, the Japan Science and for the Promotion of Science. Switzerland revised its regulation on imports of foodstuffs 政策 Following the accident of Fuku- tained. sis on the presence of caesium-134 shima, the European Commission However, the sampling and analy- and caesium- 137, will be reduced POLICY and Switzerland adopted regula- sis of some prefectures (Gunma, to a minimum of 5 % of the con- tions on import of feed and food Ibaraki, Tochigi, Miyagi, Saitama, signments (instead of 10%). from Japan. As the European Com- Tokyo, Iwate, Chiba and Kana- In addition to the already ex- mission recently revised its regula- gawa) are now limited to a list of empted alcoholic beverages (sake, tion (EU regulation No. 996/2012), specific products: mushrooms, tea, whiskey and shochu), certain Switzerland also revised its ordi- fishery products, certain edible other alcoholic beverages have nance on November 20, 2012. wild plants, certain vegetables, been excluded from the scope of Existing requirements of sampling certain fruits, rice and soybeans. the regulation. and analysis before exports for all With regard to other prefectures, See ordinance on the Website of the Federal feed and food originating from physical checks and identity Office: http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/ sr/8/817.026.2.de.pdf Fukushima prefecture are main- checks, including laboratory analy- Issue 44 Page 3 Partnership agreement between Geneva and Tsu-City A partnership agreement has been cleantech and mechatronical engi- 政策 signed on November 21, 2012 by the neering. President of Geneva’s Canton Gov- In addition, an agreement has been POLICY ernment, Pierre-François Unger, signed between the Geneva-based and Yasuyuki Maeba, Mayor of Tsu SRB Energy and a cluster of five -City (Mie prefecture). companies from Tsu-City “Cluster It will enhance the industrial coop- Industriel Renaissance 5”. Based on eration between the Geneva’s Of- this agreement, SRB Energy will fice for the Promotion of Industries put on Japanese market its thermal and Technologies (OPI) and Tsu- solar energy. It will export heating City, especially in the fields of devices to remove snow from roofs and air-conditioner systems for Pierre-François Unger, President of Ge- clean-rooms. neva’s Canton Government and Yasuyuki Maeba, Mayor of Tsu-City Successful seminar on Japanese innovations 活動 ACTIVITY 40 participants at innovation seminar Robert Fuchs, JTEKT France R&D Centre Networking aperitif About 40 participants attended a neva, Julien Guex, Deputy Director mentioned the recent develop- seminar on innovation organized of the CVCI, and H.E. Takashi ments of the firm: the innovative by JETRO, in collaboration with Okada, Ambassador, Japanese Con- Pedelec i-Bike S03+ and the health the Federal Institute of Technology sulate in Geneva. vegetable beverage “kenko-Dojo”. of Lausanne (EPFL), Vaud’s Cham- Jean-Frédéric Berthoud, Director of Kohtaro Isooh, Sumitomo Chemi- ber of Commerce and Industry the Economic Development Office cal Europe, outlined the challenges (CVCI), Economic Development of Vaud’s Canton, introduced the in the field of chemicals. Robert Office of Vaud’s Canton, Japan’s economic mission of Canton of Fuchs, JTEKT France R&D Centre, Consulate in Geneva and Japan Vaud in Japan, which took place pointed out the developments re- Club of Geneva. Entitled “Japanese from September 10 to 14. He also lated to steering, bearing, driveline Corporate R&D Seminar - Japa- thanked JETRO for its help to iden- and machine tool technologies. nese Innovation Culture”, it took tify local companies and consult- In addition, another workshop was place on November 22, 2012 at ants, and the Swiss business hub of organized by the EPFL in the EPFL Campus, in Lausanne. OSEC in Tokyo. morning of November 22, to intro- The participants were welcomed Some representatives of Japanese duce to Japanese firms the activi- by the speeches of Manabu Eto, firms outlined their R&D strate- ties of EPFL professors. Director General of JETRO Ge- gies. Shinji Okuda, Sunstar SA, Issue 44 Page 4 Nissan released updated Leaf 革新 Nissan released on Japanese mar- ket a new version of its electric car INNOVATION Leaf. It will be assembled next year in its factory in Sunderland (United Kingdom) and be soon put on European markets (no release date is available yet).