Switzerland edges closer to stricter screening of foreign investments
National Council wants to examine foreign investments more closely in future
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Switzerland edges closer to stricter screening of foreign investments
Foreign investors are set to face greater scrutiny in Switzerland as one parliamentary chamber passed the so-called Lex China bill on screening takeovers by overseas buyers.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Nationalrat will bei ausländischen Investitionen genauer hinschauen
Original
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved the bill with 143 votes in favor, 46 against and two abstentions. The controversial issue is how far the new provisions in the Investment Control Act should go.
Lawmakers adopted Lex China following the advice of its Economic Affairs Committee. Parliament had initiated the bill with the referral of a motion by Centre Party Senator Beat Rieder.
Commission spokesperson Jacqueline Badran noted on behalf of the majority that 80 to 90% of OECD countries have been implementing investment controls for some time. Switzerland, with the highest direct investment per capita, must now follow suit.
Fundamental concerns were expressed by the Radical Party, part of the Swiss People’s Party parliamentary group and the Federal Council.
The opponents doubted the benefits of an investment screening law. On the contrary, the instrument would endanger prosperity and increase bureaucracy.
Translated from German by DeepL/mga
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Life & Aging
Zurich: how the world capital of housing shortages is tackling the problem
In Switzerland more people are being referred to electrical therapies or psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Are there similar approaches where you live?
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
Swiss parties spent less than CHF1 million on February green vote
This content was published on
Swiss political parties spent CHF 700,000 ($840,000) on campaigns in the run-up to the overwhelmingly defeated vote on February 9, according to the Swiss Federal Audit Office.
This content was published on
Swisswool, the largest Swiss wool processor, is not accepting any wool for the first time this spring. For many sheep farmers, the only option is to get rid of the wool.
Swiss appeal to US Treasury Secretary for better cooperation
This content was published on
Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter met her US counterpart, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in Washington on Thursday.
This content was published on
After reaching a low point at the end of 2024, the Swiss job market showed the first signs of a slight recovery in the first quarter.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.