Promoted to head Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE) in May, after three years as number two, Anja Fiedler set out in an interview with PME magazine how the official Swiss export promotion body intends to support SMEs through geopolitical and tariff tensions. She succeeds Simone Wyss Fedele, a handover announced as early as autumn 2025.

Before S-GE, which she joined in 2023, she built her career at Unilever, Philip Morris, Lonza and Roche, then ran HACO from 2022, according to PME.

A mandate from the Confederation, stable resources

S-GE has a budget funded under a four-year mandate from the Confederation, which its CEO describes as stable. The organisation has 200 employees: half in Switzerland, in Zurich, Renens and Lugano, the other half abroad, in 20 hubs attached to embassies and covering 45 countries.

Demand, however, is rising. In 2022, S-GE supported just over 5,500 companies; last year, it received more than 7,000 requests, many of them linked to the situation in the United States. PME puts the increase at 27%. “We cannot increase our headcount to reflect demand,” Anja Fiedler acknowledges. Her answer lies in internal efficiency: ongoing training for staff, adoption of digital and artificial intelligence tools, and handling information requests through webinars and on the Swiss pavilions at international trade fairs (around 25 a year).

An economic climate that calls for caution

Her appointment coincides with a decline in exports: PME notes a 4.2% drop in the first quarter of 2026, to 66.9 billion francs, the lowest level since 2021. Anja Fiedler warns against focusing too much on these fluctuations and points out that the second quarter saw a rebound of more than 8%, driven by the recovery of the pharmaceutical industry. She does not see this as an easing, however: “In reality, if price and currency effects are excluded, net growth remains close to zero. Caution remains the order of the day.”

In her view, the recent shocks, from Donald Trump’s Liberation Day to the crisis in the Red Sea, do not upend S-GE’s priorities, as it adjusts its strategy continuously.

United States: customs information and lower fees

The United States accounts for nearly 20% of Swiss goods exports, PME points out, noting the volatility of US tariffs, the latest update of which dates from 24 July. Faced with rising customs duties, the CEO observes contrasting reactions: some companies are accelerating their investment or production on American soil, while others are freezing their projects there to redeploy towards areas covered by free trade agreements, such as Southeast Asia or India.

S-GE says it acts on two levels: technical information on customs duties, notably through its Export Help unit, and case-by-case support for strategic decisions. To cushion the shock, the organisation says it has lowered the fees for its services. Anja Fiedler also mentions that some cantons, such as Bern, have handed out export consulting vouchers.

Middle East, India, China: differentiated approaches

For companies affected by the disruption of logistics corridors in the Middle East, S-GE offers help in finding alternative routes and puts them in touch with local experts to adapt contracts and pricing policies. Some SMEs are refocusing on neighbouring markets considered more stable, such as Oman or Saudi Arabia; others are taking a countercyclical approach by setting up there now.

The Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) with India, which marks its first anniversary in October, has in her view caused interest among Swiss SMEs to soar. She reports a significant increase in the number of companies supported, notably via S-GE’s offices in several Indian cities, but stresses that it is not S-GE’s role to assess whether this interest translates into investment.

In China, where SMEs face the price war waged by local competitors and competition from Japanese companies, she believes that relying solely on a Swiss made label “is not a sufficiently solid strategy”. The key, in her view: mastering local regulatory changes and offering genuine added value that justifies a premium price.

Europe and the strong franc

Europe remains, in her eyes, “the natural foundation of our exports”. She describes as a major milestone the announcement, in mid-July, of negotiations for a revised free trade agreement with the United Kingdom: at this stage, this is the opening of negotiations, not a concluded agreement.

The strong franc, for its part, consistently ranks among the top three concerns in the quarterly surveys of the entrepreneurs S-GE supports. When monetary pressure intensifies, S-GE works with SMEs to rethink their pricing policy, the composition of their product portfolio or their geographical focus.

What is in place, and what is a matter of direction

The interview does not mention any new programme with figures attached. The measures presented as already in effect are the lower fees for services, Export Help’s customs information, the webinars and Swiss pavilions, as well as investment in training and in digital and AI tools. The rest reflects the CEO’s vision: an economy whose attractiveness rests, in her view, more on innovation than on tax arguments, and an S-GE that, in collaboration with the cantons and innovation parks, targets foreign companies likely to bring added value in health, digitalisation, agri-food, finance or automation.

Sources

  • PME: “Exportations suisses: Anja Fiedler, CEO de S-GE, dévoile sa stratégie”