WHY DO COMPANIES CHOOSE GENEVA TO SET UP THEIR OPERATIONS?
Geneva is a favorite EMEA/global headquarters location for leading companies. It is a major centre for technical excellence and innovation, with more than 600 enterprises - 1 for every 650 people - engaged in researching, developing and producing advanced new products for the high-growth markets in information technologies (IT), telecommunications, electronics and high-tech healthcare.
Geneva is also one of the global centers of worldwide trade and international trade finance. It ranks N°1 worldwide not only in financing trade of crude oil but also for the trade of grains and oil seeds, with one third of the global trade and three quarters of the trade in Europe. It ties with London as Europe's N°1 oil trading hub with about 700 million tons per year of the world's free oil trade in physical trade and about 75% of Russian exports of crude oil and oil products managed through Geneva.
Geneva presents one of the most extensive and efficient infrastructures in Europe with three technology parks, two Freeport areas, one of the most dense optical fibre networks in Europe, world-class exhibition and conference facilities. Geneva International Airport is rated among the three best in Europe providing direct links to continental and intercontinental destinations. All major European cities are less than two hours flight away.
With an ideal mix of historical tradition, lake, mountains and countryside offering an unequalled range of activities, Geneva ranks on top of Mercer's Quality of Living Survey 2008.
In addition to the public educational system, there are over 40 private schools available in Geneva, ranging from primary to university. Geneva has the greatest choice of international education in Europe with international schools offering French, English/US, or German curriculum. In addition, there are around 20 university-level institutions in the Geneva Lake Region with teaching in various languages (Webster University, Boston University, International University, Lomonosov Moscow University, etc.) Geneva is home to a highly skilled, multilingual and productive labor force that supports its leading edge in private banking, trading, life sciences and IT sectors. Geneva University is the second largest university in Switzerland with 13'500 students in 2007. It collaborates among others with CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), OMS (World Health Organization) and ESA (European Space Agency). It is involved in more than 90 partnerships and exchange programs with foreign universities.
There has been a strong scientific and technological collaboration between CERN and the former Soviet Union for over thirty years. Current activities are being carried out in the Russian Federation with Russian research institutes like Dubna, IHEP Protvino, ITEP in Moscow and Budker Institute in Novosibirsk. This collaboration is not limited to the use of CERN facilities: the expertise of Russian institutes has been applied to develop basic facilities of CERN's Laboratory and a number of international experiments involving CERN personnel were carried out in Russia, particularly in the Institute of High Energy Physics in Serpukov (I.H.E.P.).
