Until just recently, few companies from the Far East placed their operations between the cities of Geneva and St. Gallen. However, it is beginning to change quickly as more big Asian firms discover Switzerland for setting up an offshore incorporation.

A few firms have already settled here, such as the Chinese Alibaba (media) headquartered in the city of Geneva. Others are the South Korean Songwon International (chemistry) in Frauenfeld and the Indian Arexera Information Technology in Schaffhausen.

To most entrepreneurs, Switzerland seems like an attractive location to do business through an offshore incorporation. That is why more than 180 international firms mostly from the U.S. and Europe like Kraft Foods, Cisco Systems, Nissan, Yahoo, Cadbury or Google moved their operations to the Lake Geneva region during the last decade.

Switzerland Gains Draw as Tax Haven

Several large U.S. companies are reincorporating from Bermuda to Switzerland. This helps them avoid expected legislation aimed at corporations located in tax heavens.

Just recently, oil-industry firms Weatherford International Ltd., Forster Wheeler Ltd. and Houston’s Noble Corp. as well as also conglomerate Tyco International Ltd. announced their moves. A similar move plans Transocean Inc., a big offshore driller after receiving shareholder approval. Early this year (2008), the board of Bermuda-based insurer ACE Ltd. approved a “redomestication” from the Cayman Islands to Zurich.

Chiefly, the moves are designed to preserve tax benefits the companies enjoyed while being domiciled in countries like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda or even in the US state Delaware with favourable tax rules.

However, those companies discovered that Switzerland is a better place for tax protection than in these countries. Tax authorities have threatened to close tax loopholes that allow U.S. companies to benefit from incorporating in offshore tax havens while operating from the U.S. Even if the laws should change, Switzerland’s tax treaties with the U.S. would still protect companies. For this reason, offshore incorporation in Switzerland will ensure the same tax advantages.

For years, the French part of Switzerland has lagged behind its Swiss-German rivals as a location for commerce. The city of Basel with its pharmaceutical, chemical and biotech industries flourished for years. Zurich’s financial services sector also grew very rapidly while the French speaking part of our country drew up the rear, bothered with above average unemployment and a lack of dynamic businesses.

Switzerland has become the logical choice for a company looking for their European operations and headquarters to this region. Regional company seats mean high-qualified jobs for people with a good education and appropriate salaries and a knowledge transfer.

According to a study in 2006, international companies already operating from Switzerland would again settle here. The companies from India, China, Taiwan and South Korea are going global right now. It has to do that the champions from Asia grow stronger into the world economy.

Nevertheless, they keep coming, not just from Asia but also from all over the world. The town of Rolle for instance has already made room for U.S. agriculture giant ADM (Archer Daniels Midlands) this year. So also to the Japanese luxury car brand Infiniti (Nissan International SA), which has set up its European operations to this town.

Nearby, the town of Nyon is the second most dynamic area in Switzerland for new offshore incorporation start-ups. It is currently registering an annual increase of seven per cent. Morges, another town close by registers similar increases. The addition of companies moving into the Geneva-Montreux region was very noticeable in recent years.

The Lake Geneva region – the perfect location for an offshore incorporation

Experts cite a combination of factors. The region offers quality of life to expat workers who are used to the daily grind of commuting in big European or U.S. urban areas.

Than, there is the availability of highly qualified staff, both in numbers and in proximity to the company’s location. This is rather difficult to find in other European countries. Additionally comes that Switzerland has a high educational standard and many employees are bi- if not tri-lingual.

For this reason, the region is proving particularly attractive to companies in the service industries. It will also move U.S. companies closer to a faster-growing customer base in East Europe and Asia, where more than half of their revenues may come from today.

Combine that with a very attractive taxation level and the availability of international schools for the children of managers…

… and the result is an overall offering that makes areas like this appear very attractive in international terms. For many, it is reason enough to move their European headquarters to Switzerland to form an offshore incorporation.

“The Switzerland of Central America.” That is how some travel writers describe Costa Rica.

But, is that comparison accurate?

Surely, the little Latin American country is not in the same economic league as Switzerland. I mean its per capita income is less than twenty percent of its European counterpart. One is a First World Country; the other not even close.

Now, if the measure of wealth, Switzerland will never want to become an European Costa Rica. On the other hand, is that the only measure?

What comes to mind for most people are two things when comparing these countries. Each is tiny and has magnificent mountains and scenery.

But, the world might be better off when the day comes that Switzerland can be known as the “Costa Rica of Europe.”

For my money, Costa Rica is far wealthier. Here is my case.

It starts with vision.

There was a time when both countries had abundant wildlife. Switzerland had magnificent lynx, wolf packs, and european bears, chamois, and deer but the predators were killed off to make way for progress. In 1904, the last luckless bear, perhaps one that unwittingly trespassed into the country, was destroyed.

Somewhere, it is Said: “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ”

But, apparently, good is a relative term. There simply was not room enough in this bucolic country for all of God’s creatures and Man.

Some might say that Switzerland lacked vision back then. So, today, a vacationer can enjoy great chocolate and trains that run on time but not the thrill of wilderness.

Costa Rica could have emulated Switzerland but took a radically different approach. You see, while Switzerland is now almost devoid of animals, little Costa Rica is bursting at the seams. Just the size of West Virginia, so small it can be driven from the Nicaragua border to Panama in a few hours, Costa Rica has nearly twenty percent of all animal and plant species on earth.

All in all, somewhere between 500,000 and a million species of animals and plants, including more than 2,000 different kinds of orchids exist in
the Land of Pura Vida!

One of every five kinds of plant on earth calls Costa Rica home. A startling fifth of every kind of animal in the world is found in Costa Rica. The African continent has a lot of different kinds of butterflies but Costa Rica has more: more than South Africa, more than Namibia, Mozambique,Tanzania, more than all of the countries combined in Africa. There are nearly as many species of birds in Costa Rica as in the entire 48 continental states. 35% of all whale and porpoise species are in its waters and all but one of the species of turtles nest on its beaches.Of course, there was a time when several Central American countries were like Costa Rica. Verdant forests traversing the Caribbean to the Pacific. Mountains, jungles, beaches, and waters filled with life. Wild, remote, extraordinary diversity of life, Tropical Eden.Easy pickings. Real temptation. One after the other, countries from Mexico to South America chose exploitation. Quick gain, quick wealth. The great forests were slashed and burned, north to south, east to west, coast to coast, under the illusion that unfettered development would bring prosperity. Unfortunately, it perpetuated grinding poverty to most except huge landowners, many of which were huge multinational businesses.

Wildlife was terribly exploited. Manificent tropical birds were brought to the edge of extinction for the American and European pet trades. The
great cats were slaughtered for their hides. Great caravans of mules and horses carried off hundreds of millions of turtle eggs each year until some beaches went from more than 100,000 nests a year to just two. Sea turtles were mercilessly slaughtered so that a portion of their shell could be sent to Japan and Italy as a decoration on expensive shoes or knick knacks in American tourist shops.

While its neighbors were burning their forests and destroying their natural heritage, Costa Rica elected to restore its jungles. In place of
exploitation, it set its sights on sustainability. Within the last 30 years or so, and despite a per capita income just a fraction of Switzerland or other

First World countries it has:

a. Become one of the most stable countries in the Western Hemisphere and a world class tourist destination. You see, it learned that ecotourism in Costa Rica brings a lot of money along with it. Turtles, birds, orchids are worth far more alive and sustained than dead or caged;
b. Set aside more than a quarter of the country as parks, reserves, and refuges. No other country has even come close;
c. Announced that by 2021 it will be the world’s first carbon neutral country (something the wealthy Swiss will not commit to doing);
d. Created the world’s largest green sea turtle preserve on its Caribbean Coast and the world’s largest olive ridley sea turtle preserve on its Pacific Coast;
e. Risen to the very top of the world’s “Happy Index”, a measure of a country’s health, satisfaction with life, and devotion to preservation and development of sustainable resources;
f. Planted so many trees that its forests have grown more than 20%, resulting in the return of wildlife not seen in decades.

Which brings us back to Switzerland and the issue of defining wealth.

Imagine the day when a Swiss hiker hears of a wolf’s howl in the night. or sees the first bear track in more than a century. Whether he or she is financially well off or not, there will be a chill up a spine.

A year later, will that person remember how much money he or she had that day? No

Will the hiker still remember the sight or sound of wilderness? Absolutely.

So, what will that be worth? The answer is obvious: priceless.

So, which country is the wealthiest? For my vote: Costa Rica.

Maybe the time will come when Switzerland will be called “The Costa Rica of Europe” if it takes to heart the lessons the little Latin American
country has to offer about real wealth.

It only requires vision.