We believe it takes all of us to be a key driver of the shift to positive investing. Only a company where people work together can embrace this changing world. At BNP Paribas Asset Management, we are the sum of our people – a group of interesting individuals with different backgrounds and cultures – and we expect companies we work with to aim for the same standards.

The construction industry in Switzerland registered an annual growth of 1.8% in real terms last year, compared to a decline of 2.1% in 2020. The industry's growth in 2021 was supported by an expansion in both building construction activities and civil engineering works.

The construction industry includes three major sectors: residential building; non-residential building such as commercial premises to educational and recreational facilities; and engineering construction including transport, electrical and water infrastructure facilities (De Valence, 2010). In the context of statistical data, the following sectors and fields apply (Barlow, 2012): (i) the building construction sector, with civil engineering and built environment and design being the key fields; (ii) the heavy and civil engineering construction sector, with key fields being civil engineering, interdisciplinary engineering, resources engineering, and information and computing sciences; and (iii) the construction services sector, with activity in fields including civil engineering, built environment and design, information and computing sciences and mechanical engineering.

Construction industry activity in 2010 in Switzerland accounted for 6.8 per cent of GDP (ABS, 2010) with the industry employing 1,033,900 in 2011 through 351,890 firms comprising 17 per cent of Australia’s businesses (ABS, 2012b). Additionally small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), that is firms under 200 employees, were responsible for 64 per cent of the value add in the construction industry in 2009 to 2010, Chapter 3 – Page 2 with small businesses employing 69 per cent of the industry’s workforce (DIISR, 2011). The Switzerland Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates that from an initial AUD1 million of extra output in construction, AUD2.9 million in additional output could be generated in the economy as a whole. This would create nine jobs in the construction industry and 37 jobs in the rest of the economy (ACIF, 2002).

The construction industry in Switzerland is expected to contract by 2.6% in real terms this year, following a marginal annual growth of 0.6% in 2022. The industry’s growth in 2023 will be affected by elevated inflation, rising interest rates, soaring construction costs, and a sustained fall in new building permits. According to the Switzerland Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the total value of buildings approved in the country, in real seasonally adjusted terms, declined by 10.1% in 2022. Supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and the continued weakness in the country’s residential construction sector will also impact the construction industry’s growth in 2023. These headwinds are expected to affect the functioning of several construction companies in Australia, thereby leaving certain projects in jeopardy. In early March 2023, the Switzerland Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) reported that 1,236 companies in the construction sector have gone into liquidation, receivership, or administration, since July 2022. This compares to a total of 1,284 companies in overall Financial Year (FY) 2021-22 (July 2021 to June 2022).