Security of supply - all just a pipe dream?

This time, the KMU Swiss Symposium started a little earlier than usual: In the run-up to the event, two prologues were offered on the topics of "Darknet" and "Artificial Intelligence", which were attended by around half of the participants. In total, more than 300 participants paid their respects to the symposium. Delegates from Taiwan, Hungary and Croatia were also present.

Wrong approaches in the world of work

In his welcoming speech, Armin Baumann, initiator of KMU Swiss, mentioned that even small changes could have a big impact on the economy. Dr. David. W.F. Huang, representing Taiwan, pointed out that his country has many structural and geographical parallels to Switzerland. With 70% world market share in semiconductor manufacturing, a loss of Taiwanese production or a supply stoppage would have a devastating effect on the global economy. JANZZ Ltd. founder Stefan Winzenried summed it up with a concentrated load of information on the labor market situation: "Either we reduce economic output and accept minus growth - or we have to open the borders more for the right workers." Among other things, he also mentioned mistakes (such as the 4-day work week), which politicians commit in the integral world and thus tend to exacerbate the problem. And more and more young people are studying and therefore manual jobs can no longer be filled. One should nevertheless make the entrance to universities more difficult and motivate again to handicraft jobs, so his conclusion. His basic approach is based on a depoliticization of the situation and a fact-based search for solutions. And such a solution cannot consist solely in the demand for home offices, because according to a study from the USA, productivity has fallen by 44 percent in home offices.

What if the water stops flowing?

The second block of presentations was opened by Jürg Brand. He showed how vonRoll Hydro is massively committed to reducing water loss from infrastructures. This has transformed the business from a foundry to a water technology company. The fact that the problem of water supplies is not increasingly being addressed is mainly due to the fact that water simply flows in Switzerland and is basically far too cheap. If the loss of water in Switzerland were eliminated, this would correspond to an energy equivalent that could supply 15,000 households. Then transport entrepreneur Daniel Schöni opened his presentation with the remark that he is a patron, not a CEO, and that he learned his trade from scratch. In the course of his sympathetic presentation, he let the audience know that politics has to approach transport differently, but that there are still too many vested interests. It happens too often that they do something and say: "We will start with this, after which time will surely judge it...". This also applies to energy policy, where electric drives are demanded but energy production is difficult.

"Fiery" entertainment

Dr. Martin Keller, Chairman of the Board of Fenaco AG, then lit the fire to his company: "Switzerland has a self-sufficiency rate of 50% and with the compulsory stocks, price fluctuations and supply bottlenecks can currently be compensated." With the Fenaco Group would be committed to strive whenever possible regional suppliers and optimally sustainable production in agriculture.

Speaking of fire: The fire artist JennyFire impressed the crowd on stage and included the initiator of KMU Swiss, Armin Baumann, in her show: Accompanying the concluding aperitif, she showed her skills among the 35 or so exhibitors. The strong mood among the participants was visibly palpable, their exchange familiar and the feedback received was exceptionally positive, according to the organizer.

Source and further information: SME Swiss