Last year I posted my top 10 list of things I like about
Switzerland. One reader commented that
#3 (Direct Democracy) isn’t what it’s cracked up to be and used California to
support his argument. I’ve never lived
in California so can’t speak to this first hand but…the state is chock full of
Californians and relatively few Swiss so we’re talking serious apples to
oranges here. Anyway, I digress from the
original point of this post which was to note that when I featured characteristic
#2 (Public transportation) I was perhaps defining it a bit too narrowly. Recently, when driving home after a week’s ski
holiday, I was reminded of the excellent roads, bridges and tunnels. In other words, the general infrastructure
that makes #2 possible. This got me to
wondering whether there is any infrastructural element which is not excellent
here. I commented to my wife that I bet Switzerland
has the world’s highest rated infrastructure and when we got home I did a bit
of research and, sure enough, it does.
According to a report published in 2014 by the World Economic Forum1,
Switzerland’s infrastructure is #1 in the world (out of 144 countries rated). This evaluation comprised more than just roads
and rail of course. In fact, there were
nine categories in total, such as air transport, telephone, electric grid and even
seaports, a category where Switzerland somehow managed a #44 ranking in spite
of being landlocked. Surprisingly,
Switzerland wasn’t #1 for rail infrastructure.
That honor went to Japan, although Switzerland was #2. The area where Switzerland shined highest was
electric grid, a recognition to which I can attest. In our ten years here we’ve suffered only a
single power failure and nary a flickering light. Naturally, I was curious to see how the US
ranked and was surprised that it managed a respectable, but not great, #16. In overall Global Competitiveness, the US
ranked #3 (after Switzerland and Singapore) so we make up for it in other ways,
for instance Marketing sophistication where we were ranked top in class (Go Mad
Men). One last observation that I found
interesting. One of the many other sub-categories
in which Switzerland finished #1 was “Capacity to attract and retain talent”. They got me to come and stay, didn’t they?
1 The Global Competitiveness Report 2014–2015:
Full Data Edition. Published
by the World Economic Forum within the framework of The Global Competitiveness
and Benchmarking Network (available at www.weforum.org/gcr).
