News View - BaselArea

金曜日, 29.05.2009

Promoting the region abroad: Jura and the Basel area together

In the future, Canton Jura will work together with BaselArea, the organization of Canton Baselland and Basel-Stadt for economic development, in joint efforts to promote the region for foreign companies. Jura will present itself on foreign markets under the umbrella brand of BaselArea, but remains organisationally and operationally autonomous. The cooperation will start on 1 January 2010 and is initially limited to a period of four years.

Basel / Delémont / Liestal, 29 May 2009

Canton Jura wants to use the BaselArea brand to acquire future customers on foreign markets. With this in mind, a close cooperation was agreed upon between the economic promotion organization of the two Basel cantons and the canton of Jura. The members’ meeting of the BaselArea organization and the three cantonal governments have approved the cooperation.

Everyone benefits from the collaboration

 

The agreement provides for an amalgamation of the partners’ networks with the aim of settling companiies from abroad in their regions. This partnership will enable the markets to be managed more efficiently and effectively. Canton Jura is responsible for markets in France, the Benelux countries and Russia, where it already has a very broadly developed business network, while BaselArea focuses predominantly on Germany, the USA, Canada, Japan and other countries. The economic development group is aimed in particular at life sciences companies. But companies from other sectors are also of interest to the region.

 

This cooperation is in the interest both of BaselArea and of Canton Jura. The two partners complement each other in terms of economic development and industrial structure. This applies to the markets, the types of companies, the languages, the know-how and also the experience gathered to date, which promises a strengthening of the industrial centres of Basel and Canton Jura.

Economic promotion of Jura remains in Delémont

BaselArea and the Jura will agree on operational activities and guarantee transparency in financial incentives for companies wanting to settle in the region. But both partners remain structurally autonomous. This means the economic development organization of Canton Jura will remain in Delémont. But the Jura will enjoy observer status at the members’ meetings of BaselArea. The two partners will coordinate their strategies for promoting the region abroad. For all the benefits provided by BaselArea, in particular shared use of the umbrella brand, BaselArea will receive an annual compensation of 250,000 francs from Canton Jura.

Full membership will be considered later

Thanks to this agreement, Canton Jura can join forces with a strong and nearby business centre, the metropolis of Basel, with which it already has important ties in a number of areas. Accordingly, the end of 2009 will see Canton Jura leaving the economic development organization of Western Switzerland (DEWS), where it has been a member since 2005, without having achieved the results it had hoped for. In the long term, the canton is seeking full membership of BaselArea. The conditions for this will be reviewed in the third year of the  four-year cooperation.

Information:
Dr. Suzanne Thoma
President BaselArea
Phone 079 433 54 25
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www.baselarea.ch

Michel Probst, Government Councillor Canton Jura
Department of Economics, Cooperation and Communities
Phone 032 420 52 03
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Dr. Franz Saladin
CEO BaselArea
Phone 061 295 50 05
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www.baselarea.ch