Swiss president: Openness is shared value of China and Switzerland

President of the Swiss Confederation Doris Leuthard said her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who is paying a state visit to Switzerland from Sunday, shares her "values and philosophy" that only openness and inclusiveness can bring win-win results for the global economy.

"Only openness and an open economy achieve better results and nowadays, we cannot avoid going global," Leuthard told China Daily during an exclusive interview on Thursday in the Swiss capital, Bern.

"We fight against protectionism and President Xi shares the same values and philosophy."

Saying it is an "honor and pleasure" to receive Xi, Leuthard has revealed that the two countries are going to send strong signals to drum up global cooperation and fight against closed-door policies during Xi's visit from Jan 15-18.

"I think many countries are on our side and they know cooperation is much better than isolationism and protectionism."

Xi is scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, the first Chinese president to do so, and visit other international organizations during the visit.

Both countries will announce an upgrade to their free trade agreement, which entered into force in July 2014, drastically cutting tariffs.

However, Leuthard said both sides have decided to either slash remaining tariffs completely or reduce them significantly to facilitate trade. "We have found that there is still room to improve and so we decided to upgrade our free trade partnership," she said.

She also said the global financial market is not stable and this has an impact on Switzerland, the seventh-biggest financial market in the world.

"I am keen to learn how Xi will share his views on the challenges," she said.

Leuthard wants both Geneva and Zurich, major financial centers, to attract more Chinese banks and financial institutions.

"Competition is a good thing and we welcome Chinese banks to invest in Switzerland," she added.

Financial cooperation will be key elements of agreements both countries will sign during Xi's visit.

She also said that both countries will deepen cooperation in energy sectors and they have already entered into agreements on dealing with environmental problems.

"I know pollution is quite severe in China and that's also why we want to share our experiences and technologies in expanding cooperation in energy and the environment," she said.

Citing that in some urban regions in China, heating still relies on coal-fired power stations, she said affordable replacements and technologies already exist. "It is not about cost but adapting to changes," she said.

But Leuthard forecast that China will move faster than expected in dealing with pollution and smog. She recalled Switzerland suffered from similar experiences during its industrialization process but it took about 40-50 years to fix the problems.

Both countries will also announce 2017 as year of Sino-Swiss tourism promotion and the Swiss president said that due to China's rising middle class, more and more tourists will visit and stay in Switzerland longer.

"And we are pleased that many Chinese people buy Swiss watches during their stay here as well," she said.