A Message for the New Year

Dear Members of the Swiss Club,

Dear Readers of 'Relax',

I hope that you have all had a wonderful festive season and a restful break as we bid farewell to 2020. I understand that for many, this year’s holiday season was a rather unusual one, as travelling was and still is difficult. Nevertheless I hope you enjoyed the many activities in Singapore and some of the delicious delights offered by our Swiss F&B partners. We thank those of you who participated in our Facebook advent calendar quiz for the daily Swiss giveaways. We truly enjoyed your creative answers and hope it lifted your spirits just as much as it did ours.

2020 was a year of adapting and accepting change and I am proud of my colleagues for rising to the challenge and successfully continuing to engage the community. We embrace 2021 with optimism and enthusiasm, and are hopeful that the New Year is a year filled with more welcome news and fruitful activities. Our excitement is evident in the quality programme the embassy has planned. This year will be a special one as we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Swiss Club. We will also have the highly anticipated launch of the EHL campus here in Singapore and our second ever Swiss Week. On the diplomatic side, visits from Federal Councillors are in the pipeline, which will provide a great opportunity to further strengthen the relations between our two countries.

We are also working on a new edition of Swiss Week in 2021, to celebrate and further foster intercultural exchanges between Singapore and Switzerland on many levels including culture, innovation, education and gastronomy. It is the perfect occasion to showcase the diverse facets of Switzerland, and to engage in exciting experiences here and in the region. We look forward to collaborating with our Swiss community and partners both in Switzerland and in Singapore for this year’s Swiss festivities, scheduled for the last quarter of the year.

In addition to Swiss Week 2021, we have a range of projects lined up, which includes our annual participation in the Francophonie festival in March, the European Film Festival, Archifest, and of course our August 1 National Day celebrations. To kick off the cultural activities of 2021, we will be hosting a two-part webinar series on the impact of COVID-19 on culture. In partnership with the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), we will present two conversations on the future of the arts in the ‘new normal’, engaging with artists, cultural institutions and government representatives in Switzerland and in Asia.

These are just a handful of the many activities we have planned. As we expand our scope to include more areas of collaboration between Switzerland and Singapore, we aim to bring you more of the indomitable Swiss spirit, right here in the Lion City. For our latest updates, we invite you to follow us on Facebook (@SwissEmbassySingapore), our LinkedIn (Embassy of Switzerland in Singapore) and my Twitter (@SwissAmbSGP).

On behalf of the embassy, I wish everyone a joy-filled year ahead and look forward to meeting you at our events this year!

Sincerely,

Fabrice Filliez

Ambassador of Switzerland

Article and photos courtesy of Embassy of Switzerland in Singapore