Swiss Review 1/2020

Swiss Review / January 2020 / No.1 19 GNI. In 2011, parliament ordered the Federal Council to raise this figure to 0.5 per cent. However, this goal will not be achieved in the current period. Last year, the OECD Development Assistance Commit- tee repeated its call for Switzerland to keep the promise that it made in 2011. Aid agencies that have been pleading for years for a figure of 0.7 per cent of GNI now hope that the newly formed parliament will make the appropriate corrections. Alliance Sud notes that countries including Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark and the UK have allocated up to one per cent of their yearly GNI for develop- ment cooperation. The SVP, on the other hand, wants tomake radical cuts. From its perspective, Switzerland spends too much tax- payer money on development aid. For this reason, the Peo- ple’s Party wants to shift one billion francs from the devel- opment aid budget to the old-age insurance fund annually. Apopular initiative to this effect is in the pipeline. The only money that the SVP wants to protect from cuts is humani- tarian aid for people in dire need after catastrophes such as famines or earthquakes. Corehendi beaqui est rehe nissim et peror aboria nonsequia quas exeri doluptati qui debis magnim estioreru Switzerland in figures Counterfeit notes, expensive chocolate, melting glaciers 82 82 counterfeit 1,000-franc notes were confiscated in Switzerland in 2018 – which is an unprecedentedly low number. A total of 17,654 were recalled in 2000. The Federal Office of Police says that the high quality of Swiss notes discourages forgers, but they are now bringing more forged 5-franc coins into circulation. 640 An 80-gram bar of the world’s most expensive chocolate costs 640 Swiss francs. It was created by the Zurich manufacturer Attimo Chocolate. It is made from rare Grand Cru cocoa, saffron from the village of Mund (VS) and crystals extracted from fresh oranges. Only 50 bars of this expensive product have been produced. 85 This statistic has nothing to do with chocolate, but rather with the digital trend: 85 out of every 100 Swiss children do not get enough exercise. According to the World Health Organisation WHO, they exercise for less than an hour per day. As a result, the inactivity rate of 11-to-17-year-olds in Switzerland has increased further. 10 It almost slips our minds during winter: Swiss glaciers have shrunk by 10 per cent over the last five years. According to Swiss glaciologists, the glaciers are melting at a faster rate. The Pizol glacier (SG) has disappeared entirely and was symbolically buried by alpinists on 22 September 2019. 56 If you have read up to here, you are clearly interested in facts and news. However, according to studies conducted by the University of Zurich, the number of people who do not worry about the news or actively avoid it is growing. In the case of under-30-year-olds, around 56 per cent are now described as “news-deprived”. COMPILATION: MUL Consultation process documents on Swiss development cooperation for the years 2021 – 2024: ogy.de/eza2024