overall effect of these interactions would impact overall on growth. these perspectives call for measures that boost both labour productivity and labour input. in a market economy, employers, employees and the self - employed have a number of instruments and options at their disposal to increase labour productivity and labour input. however, there is also room for improvement with regard to the economic conditions within which businesses operate. first, the capacity for innovation in switzerland should not be allowed to decline. therefore, policies fostering education and research are called for. second, switzerland ought to continue to attract more investment. in other words, domestic investment should become more attractive. in a globalised world, switzerland's attractiveness as a business location in an internationally competitive environment should continue to improve. third, the economically active population could be strengthened by increasing the number of qualified immigrants. there is a substantial pool of labour from which to recruit not only within the european union ( eu ), but also in other regions. at the same time, switzerland's employment quota could be lifted if more women now living in switzerland entered the workforce. the key to achieving this goal is striving for a greater work life balance, i. e. combining a career and family life for both parents. for example, more women should have the option to work fulltime on a permanent basis.

central banks involved than exists today. all the competent bodies in the eu have to make sure this cooperation is put in place. otherwise, market turbulence, exchange rate fluctuations and a heavy burden on the new ecb would result. neither the eu, nor, as a matter of fact, switzerland can be interested in such a development. like any other country in europe, switzerland has a vital interest in emu becoming a success. switzerland ’ s economy is closely linked to the economy of the eu. high growth in europe is essential for a sound economic development in switzerland, whereas a lackluster economic situation in the eu contributes to sluggish economic growth in our country. the success or failure of emu will thus directly affect our economic well - being. in fact, not only our economic well - being, but also our ability to conduct a relatively autonomous monetary policy will be affected. market turbulence during the transition period, uncertainties about the future monetary policy of the ecb and unfulfilled expectations about the stability of the new currency and the degree of political independence of the ecb all have the potential to create an upward pressure on the swiss franc. an appreciating currency would make it more difficult for our export - oriented companies to compete on the world market and would increase the competition faced domestically from abroad. should the swiss franc appreciate to an extent that economic activities in switzerland were severely disrupted, we would have several courses of action open to us. the swiss national bank ( snb ) could relax monetary policy in an effort to counteract the effects of the strong swiss franc on the domestic economy. attractive as this response may be, its major drawback is that we would have to walk a tight rope. relaxing monetary policy too little might not be enough to break the upward pressure on the franc ; relaxing monetary policy too much might lead to inflationary tendencies later on. the dilemma faced by the snb would become even greater should the pressure on the swiss franc to appreciate become more pronounced. in such a situation, we could react by pegging the exchange rate of the franc to the euro. a peg could either be temporary or the swiss authorities could decide to link the swiss franc permanently to the new single currency through a fixed exchange rate. a permanent peg could do away with the problem of an appreciating currency. it would, however, have major drawbacks : first, we would give up our relative autonomy in setting the course of monetary