Premier Dr. Haselof welcomed Helvetian Ambassador

The ties between the two countries are manifold. Switzerland is one of our country’s most important trading partners. In 2018 for instance, exports totalled 617 million euros, the highest level up to date. The main exports are aluminium and aluminium alloys, petroleum products, chemical precursors and plastics. Imports amounted to 626 million euros in the previous year. The main groups of imported goods were semi-finished aluminium products and pharmaceutical products.

There are 96 companies in Saxony-Anhalt with a majority shareholding of Swiss investors, including Arytza Bakeries Deutschland GmbH in Lutherstadt Eisleben, SALUTAS Pharma GmbH in Barleben, SOEX Processing Germany GmbH in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, AMEOS Kliniken in Halberstadt, Bernburg and Schönebeck and EUROGLAS GmbH in Haldensleben.

All universities and colleges in Saxony-Anhalt hold contacts vis-à-vis Switzerland, mainly for the exchange of students and teaching staff. In addition, the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg is currently involved in three projects funded by the EU programme “Horizon2020” with partners hailing from Switzerland.

There is also extensive cooperations in the field of culture. In 2018, for example, the Bauhaus Foundation organised the exhibition “Material als Experiment/ Vergangenheit – Gegenwart – Zukunft” [Material as experiment/Past- Present – Future] in cooperation with the Zurich University of the Arts and the Swiss Material Archive. In the exhibition of the Luther Memorials Foundation “Honoured. Beloved. Forgotten. Maria zwischen den Konfessionen” [Maria between faiths], which can still be seen in Wittenberg until the end of August 2019, will be shown for the first time outside Zurich’s sculptures from the Emil Bührle Collection in Zurich.