These are the countries where dictators hide their money or multinationals have postboxes to "streamline" their taxes at the costs of their employees (because if you work in a country and your employer isn't paying his fair share of taxes there... guess who will in the end not get the streets, schools, hospitals he deserves?).

The "grey" part of the Swiss finance industry has always been far more than those dictators. Estimations vary but about 60-75% of German "black money" is hidden in Switzerland. The SME owner who managed to bypass a million EUR will not bring it to Guatemala. And there are more of those than evil dictators. Far more.

In short: You cannot copy Switzerland for the same reasons we have so many discussions here. Many believe that a country is a set of rules and laws. It is far more than that. Most things in Switzerland are done in a specific way although there is no law telling you that you absolutely have to do it this exact way. People do so "cause we always did". Transferring this collective set of rules, values, norms and simply attitude is impossible.

Heck, I lived seven years in Zurich and I come from the culture which is the closest to the Swiss. Even I did not understand why breaking some traffic rules like not stopping at crossings was considered basically ok while others like the lightest speeding offence is socially not acceptable. (You get a hefty fine for all of them, but some are way more enforced than others.)

In that sense can you not copy any country, even the youngest ones. I don't think the Singaporean way you mentioned would for example work anywhere in Europe as it is way more than simply a strong government, it is based on many aspects of the Chinese culture of the majority of the population.

Having lived in Singapore (and a few other countries, of which I'd rate Canada very high in terms of "livability") I'm inclined to not consider the punative aspect the downer there. It's perfectly livable if you stick to the rules, and the rules aren't particularly cumbersome either. They are just extremely crystal clear about punishment. You do xyz, you will get punishment ABC. No "yes, but" or "it's against the law but we tolerate it" etc. In a way I appreciated that. What got to me more in Singpore was that I found it to be rather sterile and shallow / materialistic - perhaps driven by the fact that it's a country which managed to come from being a swamp to being first world country in 40 years.

Aside from Canada, perhaps consider Norway - oil revenues help a lot there of course.

I hope not. Utopia can be very dull and boring. I have never seen such a lack of musical talent anywhere.

Switzerland is what it is because it has aided criminals for decades and spent the ensuing benefits well. It is that simple.

So you came here to get your share of the loot?

I reread this thread after having spent a large part of my weekend reading up on investment opportunities in Mongolia to capitalize on the massive GDP boom starting to happen there.

I have a long standing interest in Mongolia for other reasons as well which I won't go into here.

In any case, this is a country which has a decent shot at becoming a Switzerland in 10-20 years (longer in fact probably) if they "get it right".

Isn't that a tautology? Doesn't any country that "gets it right" stand a decent shot? The question is whether they CAN get it right, surely

(Also.....I never understand why people right "There are other reasons which I don't want to go into here". The best way to avoid going into stuff you don't want to is not to mention it, no? )

There WERE two statesman who studied Swiss laws and regulations, Mustafa Kemal Pasha copying much of the laws and of the structures, and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who copied laws and much of the constitution, most of all the federalist ideas. It took its time to succeed and the two gentlemen did not live long enough to see the resulting longterm progress, but I think both would be very happy to see what resulted out of their work decades later. General Murtala Mohammed would be angry about the Fundamentalist Muslim violence in his country, but very happy to see that the federalist "Swiss" structures he implemented in his native Nigeria gave/Give his country a chance to succeed.

It was Jean-Jacques Rousseau who, influenced by the federalist ideas of the Swiss federation, published his anti-centralist, anti-authoritarian ideas. It was authoritarian Emperor Napoleon I (Napoleone Buonaparte) who started an independent law, the "Code Napoléon", and who when seeing the original concept of the Helvetian Republic failing, started a kind of federalist experiment in Switzerland, btw. giving cantonal "independence" to Thurgau, Aargau and Ticino. It was Messrs Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin who developed a constitution (the USA one) out of those ideas and put the ideas into practice. The Swiss in 1848, not least under the influence of internationally minded war-winner General Henri Dufour, copied/translated the US constitution, replaced the president by a 7-member top group and adapted the scheme to Swiss realities. So that, A) such developments take not only years but decades or even centuries, and that B) Switzerland is a kind of "replica" of the USA (its sister republic), just a bit smaller in size

The banking secrecy of course DID help, but in reality is of minor importance. The fact that CH after WWII was the only country with an intact industry on DIN-standards-basis was only another add-on. The rise of Switzerland really started in 1848 with a democratic-federalist structure which at that time was unique in Europe. If you look things up in the Meyer's Konversations-Lexikon of 1908 you can see that Switzerland was on the same level as the "better" and more industrialized provinces of the German Empire (Deutsches Reich) of those times. As Bundesrat Schneider-Ammann these days stated, the banking-secrecy-law was NOT invented to cover crooks.

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ITALY for centuries was THE vacation land of Europe, and ITALY was the land of banking to the world long before Switzerland. In Zürich, it in the 1850ies and 1860ies and 1870ies was Alfred von Escher who brought banking to Zürich in a real way. And while Basel with the SBV and SBG had some whiles of banking traditions before that,

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Sorry but the E.U. has very very very strict immigration laws ! As a result of the Bilaterals, CH even had to stiffen its regulations.

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An interesting idea For three months, the CHers would relax and enjoy. But then they would invent and implement 2959 rules/laws, reorganize everything, which would lead, within 10 months, those "Gringos" trying to immigating into the new "Mexikanische Eidgenossenschaft" And of course, the spoken language in Mexiko would be Schwizertüütsch and the writen language in MexiKo would simply be German, with Spanish just being the language in some areas of two Mexikanische Kantone

Certainly, take North Korea open it up, make it liberal and implement banking secrecy.

a quick look at tax rates in zug and schwyz might give some clues...

And give them all a gun to keep at home under their beds.....

How is that job at Swiss Tourism working out for ya there, LIB?

The money of some dictators and of some tax-evaders if often talked about, but is a relatively "minor" matter compared with the billions placed into the uncountable "corporate" headquarters. Minor if you take into account the many many former ASEA managers who move to ABB HQ ZCh and then after their turn here simply stay here and bring over not only their money but their capabilities. A former SBV (UBS) banker told me that the "tax-evaders/dictators" business in case of UBS makes up far less than 10% of the business, while the corporate-HQ/fortunes-management sector makes up more than 25% (and I here refer just to business HERE).

Then you may add that Switzerland copied things from other countries, the constitution from the USA, certain laws from France, certain regulations from Germany.

And finally, what you say about Singapore is interesting in so far as while Singapore has a strong government, Switzerland has a rather weak Federal government, with much of the real political clout including finance is with the Cantons.

Switzerland has also over the years developed a SIGNIFICANT trading business in all major commodities. Something like this would be very difficult for another country to duplicate.

For example, did you know that Starbucks buys all of their green coffee beans for their worldwide business in Lausanne?

From the CH Federal gov't:
"Trading companies

Switzerland is home to a number of large international trading companies, whose business consists of buying commodities and selling them on to third parties. The commodities themselves, principally cereals, sugar, cotton, oil and gas, never enter Switzerland. These companies are not listed on the stock exchange.
The trading companies often make an important contribution to the local economy, providing employment and paying taxes.
Canton Zug

The largest trading company is Glencore International, based in Zug, which was named in a survey issued in 2006 as the company with the largest turnover in Switzerland, and the sixth largest in Europe.
Canton Zug is one of the main Swiss centres for trading companies.
Geneva

In Europe Geneva is second only to London for the importance of its international trading and shipping businesses, with some 350 enterprises providing about 5000 jobs. In 2006 the international trading and shipping community of Geneva set up an association to look after their interests.
Lugano

In this specific context, Lugano also achieved an essential role – especially as regards steel, base metals, carbon and in part, also soft commodities. The most important brands of the global textile sector are present in Ticino very close to Northern Italy. Famous companies such as Hugo Boss, Ermenegildo Zegna, Gucci, Guess, Giorgio Armani, Versace, VF International, etc. have been creating a strong know-how in trading, finance and logistics operations connected to the textile sector.
Recent developments

Lucerne was an important diamond trading centre until the beginning of 2002, when the South African de Beers group, which dominates the world diamond trade, transferred its business to London."


Link: http://www.swissworld.org/en/economy...ing_companies/