Thurgau is a canton in north-eastern Switzerland, centrally located in Europe. The aim of the study is to identify Thurgau’s competitive advantages in relation to other European locations which are similar in size and have the same economic development background and sectors. Throughout the analysis, Global Arena has put a focus on comparing Thurgau in relation to its direct competitors in Germany, Austria, Italy and other locations in Switzerland, as well as similar regions in northern and eastern Europe.

1. GlobalArenaRank
2011 Comparative Advantages Analysis for Thurgau.

2. Contents
• Thurgau Overview
• Executive summary
• GlobalArenaRank™ - The process
o What is measured?
o Data Sources
• Comparative Advantages Analysis-Consolidated Results
o At a glance
o Focus on specific cases
o By location factors
• Appendices
o GlobalArenaRank™ – Explained
o Data Sources
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3. Thurgau overview
The canton of Thurgau is located between Lake Constance and the foothills of the
Swiss Alps in north-eastern Switzerland – in the heart of Europe. It borders Germany,
embraces the high-tech triangle “Stuttgart-Munich-Milan” and pools resources with the
university town of Constance right on the doorstep.
This is where some 230,000 inhabitants feel at home. Zurich city is only 40 km
away from the canton capital, Frauenfeld. Even closer is Zurich International Airport.
Furthermore, you can easily reach nearby airports in Friedrichshafen (Germany)
and Altenrhein. Plus there’s a close-packed road and railway network so that getting there
and getting around in Thurgau is a breeze.
• Visit Thurgau
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4. Executive Summary
Thurgau has several competitive advantages in comparison with similar competing
regions in neighboring countries which makes it a very interesting region as it comes down
to attracting foreign investment and setting up headquarters for small and medium-sized
ICT companies in particular:
• Thurgau’s ICT infrastructure is highly developed, more advanced than Germany, Austria
and Italy, and is far ahead of its competing regions in Eastern Europe.
• Switzerland’s labour availability relative to its population is highest among all competing
countries. Switzerland shows a very high employment rate.
• Thurgau’s labour market flexibility is second least rigid in comparison with its competing
regions: it is least difficult to hire and dismiss employees and the redundancy costs are
low.
• From an investor’s point of view, Switzerland has the highest FDI inflow per capita.
Moreover, Thurgau has a higher than average purchasing power and population size.
• Switzerland is highly politically stable and corruption perception is low.
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5. GlobalArenaRank™
The process
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6. GlobalArenaRank – What is measured?
Global Arena RankTM utilizes basic macroeconomic data provided by a wide variety of providers including: international
financial research firms (e.g.Thomson-Reuters), government-provided statistical reports, World Bank information and others. Global
Arena validates the raw data. Then, statistical analysis is used to identify correlations in the data series. The correlated data is
categorized as follows:
Economic Talent Attractiveness
Labor Cost Education Consumer Market Potential
Labor Productivity Labor Availability Socio-Political
Infrastructure Labor Market Flexibility Cost of Living
(A full definition of each category as well as an explanation of the data used in each category is provided in the appendix.)
For each of the nine categories, the component inputs for all in-scope locations are statistically correlated to create an
ordered list. A meaningful overall ranking, i.e. one that depends on all nine categories, is possible only if there is a mathematically
consistent way to compare rankings across categories. Global Arena RankTM solves this issue by mapping the raw ordered list of
each category into a Gaussian distribution - a mechanism to allow each category to be converted to a ranking number between -1
and 1. (If the number of data sources is inadequate to make a Gaussian distribution mathematically viable, a flat mapping is used.)
For convenience, these are presented in ranking reports as percentages. Informally, a location with a rank of 85% in a specific
category would rank higher than 85% of any other location.
Once the macroeconomic data has been correlated and mapped, the information necessary for to complete the ranking is
in place. Global Arena ranks are not static, but are computed based on the relative importance, assigned by the user, of each of the
location categories. Different weights will lead to different results. This dynamic feature of the model is useful since the economic
fundamentals that are important for locating a call center are not the same as those for a HQ.
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7. GlobalArenaRank – Data Sources
• Market labour costs: Economic Research Institute, IMF
• Labour productivity: Eurostat
• ICT infrastructure: CIA World Factbook, OECD
• Education: United Nations
• Labour availability: CIA World Factbook
• Labour market flexibility: the World Bank
• Consumer Market Potential: Eurostat, CIA World Factbook, IMF, regional statistical offices
• Socio-political: the World Bank, the Heritage Foundation, Transparency International
• Cost of living: Economic Research Institute
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8. Comparative Advantages Analysis
Consolidated Results at a glance
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9. Overview – Top EU cities by factors
Rank
Labor Cost
Labor
IT
Education
Labor
Labor
Consumer Socio- Cost of Living
productivity
Infra- Availability
Flexibility
Market Political
structure
Potential
1
Wroclaw
Galway
Limburg
Wroclaw
Fribourg (CH)
Aalborg
Thurgau
Fribourg
Bratislava
2
Bratislava
Linz
Almere
Bratislava
Thurgau
Fribourg
Aalborg
Thurgau
Wroclaw
3
Almere
Bregenz
Aalborg
Galway
Aargau Thurgau
Limburg
Aargau Galway
4
Galway
Vercelli
Fribourg (CH)
Aalborg
Aalborg
Aargau Bregenz
Galway
Chester
5
Vercelli
Varese
Thurgau
Chester
Malmo
Galway
Galway
Aalborg
Almere
6
Limburg
Almere
Aargau
Malmo
Augsburg
Chester
Fribourg
Malmo
Limburg
7
Linz
Limburg
Malmo
Fribourg Chester
Linz
Chester
Linz
Vercelli
(CH)
8
Chester
Malmo
Augsburg
Thurgau
Limburg
Bregenz
Aargau
Bregenz
Malmo
9
Bregenz
Fribourg (CH)
Chester
Aargau
Almere
Vercelli
Malmo
Limburg
Augsburg
10
Malmo
Thurgau
Galway
Limburg
Linz
Varese
Almere
Almere
Varese
11
Varese
Aargau
Linz
Almere
Bregenz
Bratislava
Varese
Augsburg
Linz
12
Fribourg (CH)
Chester
Bregenz
Vercelli
Vercelli
Wroclaw
Linz
Chester
Fribourg
13
Aalborg
Augsburg
Varese
Varese
Varese
Limburg
Vercelli
Bratislava
Aalborg
14
Augsburg
Aalborg
Vercelli
Augsburg
Bratislava
Almere
Augsburg
Wroclaw
Bregenz
15
Thurgau
Bratislava
Bratislava
Linz
Galway
Malmo
Bratislava
Vercelli
Thurgau
16
Aargau
Wroclaw
Wroclaw
Bregenz
Wroclaw
Augsburg
Wroclaw
Varese
Aargau
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10. Thurgau comparative advantages in relation to
European locations with similar size and sectors
Analysis
• Equal weighting doesn’t illustrate
Thurgau’s advantages.
• Ranking results depend on planned
business activity.
• Subsequent graphics will focus on
Thurgau’s competitors (Germany,
Austria, Italy, Switzerland).
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11. Thurgau comparative advantages in relation to
bordering countries and Swiss locations
Analysis
• Thurgau does very well against
bordering competitors.
• Position changes as relative
importance of the location factors
change.
• Thurgau should focus on businesses
that match Thurgau’s strength.
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11

12. Comparative Advantages Analysis
Consolidated results focus on specific cases
 IT start-up
 Small to Medium Sized Enterprise HQ
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13. Comparison of Swiss locations and bordering country’s
locations for the selection of IT Start-up: Thurgau #1
Analysis
• IT Infrastructure, Labor
Flexibility, Labor Availability and
Socio-political weighted equally
• Thurgau outperforms its
neighboring regions on the
above mentioned
factors which makes it an ideal
location to attract IT and
manufacturing companies.
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13

14. Comparison of Swiss locations and bordering country’s
locations for the selection of HQ (SME): Thurgau #1
Analysis
• IT Infrastructure, Labor
Flexibility, Labor Availability
Socio-political and Consumer
Market Potential weighted
equally.
• Reasonable allocation for HQ
location for Small to Medium
sized Enterprise.
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15. Comparative Advantages Analysis
Consolidated results by location factors
(Backup)
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16. Ranking Component: Labour Market Cost
Data Series Used
• Market labour cost, ICT sector
• GDP per capita, PPP
Analysis
• Thurgau’s labour costs are very
high in comparison with its main
competitors.
• Moreover, fierce competition from
Eastern low labour cost countries is
still a major challenge to be
addressed.
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17. Ranking Component: Labour Productivity
Data Series Used
• Labour productivity per person
employed
Analysis
• Switzerland's labour productivity is
on slightly lower than average
among the countries in scope.
The results are based on average
country productivity data.
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18. Ranking Component: ICT Infrastructure
Data Series Used
• Internet users per thousand
inhabitants
• Internet hosts per thousand
inhabitants
• Broadband subscriptions per 100
inhabitants
Analysis
• Thurgau is in the top three as it
comes down to ICT infrastructure
• Thurgau scores significantly
higher than average on internet
users, hosts per thousand
inhabitants and broadband
subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.
• Only the Netherlands and
Denmark score more favourable
on ICT infrastructure.
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19. Ranking Component: Education
Data Series Used
• Graduates in all programs –
tertiary education – total per 1000
inhabitants
• Enrolment in tertiary education –
all programs – per 1000 inhabitants
Analysis
• Switzerland has a slightly lower
than average number of university
graduates per 1000 inhabitants.
• Thurgau performs better in
comparison with The Netherlands,
Italy, Germany and Austria.
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20. Ranking Component: Labour Availability
Data Series Used
• Labour force per 1000 inhabitants
• Unemployment rate
Analysis
• Thurgau scores most favorable on
labour availability with a very high
labour force (per 1000 inhabitants).
• Italy, Ireland and Poland score far
below average on labour
availability.
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21. Ranking Component: Labour Flexibility
Data Series Used
• Difficulty of hiring index
• Rigidity of hours index
• Difficulty of redundancy index
• Redundancy costs
Analysis
• Together with Denmark, Switzerland is
in the top two of most attractive
countries concerning labour law rigidity.
• Among the countries in scope, it is least
difficult to hire and dismiss employees in
Switzerland. The redundancy costs in
terms of weeks of salary are lower than
average among the countries in scope.
• Germany and Sweden score least
favorable on the labour market flexibility
indicators.
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22. Ranking Component: Consumer Market Potential
Data Series Used
• FDI inflow per capita
• GDP per capita
• Population
Analysis
• Thurgau and Aalborg are most
favorable in terms of market
attractiveness; Bratislava and Wroclaw
are least favorable.
• From an investor's point of view,
Thurgau has the highest FDI inflow per
capita and a higher than average
purchasing power and population size.
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23. Ranking Component: Socio-Political
Data Series Used
• Political Stability index
• Index of economic freedom
• Corruption perception index
Analysis
• Switzerland is highly politically stable
and corruption perception is low. It is at
the top among the researched countries.
• Switzerland scores best on the political
stability index and the index of economic
freedom. Moreover, corruption
perception is far better than average
among the countries in scope.
• Poland and Italy score least favorable
on socio-political stability.
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24. Ranking Component: Cost of Living
Data Series Used
• Consumables
• Housing
• Health services
Analysis
• Thurgau and Aargau score least
favourable on the cost of consumables,
housing and health services.
• Bratislava and Wroclaw perform best in
terms of cost of living.
• Vercelli, Malmo and Augsburg perform
on average as it comes down to cost of
living.
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25. Appendices
• GlobalArenaRank™ – Explained
• Data Sources
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26. GlobalArenaRank™
Explained
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27. GlobalArenaRank™ – Explained
• Location Ranking Charter
Provide a mathematically sound and objective analysis of macroeconomic indicators to support
business location decisions.
Provide a dynamic analysis that allows the customer to weight decision criteria. (The requirements
for a regional headquarters site are different from those for a shared service center.)
• Customized Ranking Report Charter
Use GlobalArenaRank™ technology to rank the client location against major competitors.
Develop appropriate decision criteria to show client location in the best way.
(I.e. Identify ideal characteristics for ideal candidate to relocate)
Provide data to identify client location strengths and weaknesses.
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28. GlobalArenaRank™ – The Process
Challenges
• A common mechanism is needed to compare disparate data sources
Example:
Redundancy costs ($,€,¥,£, etc.)
Population (numbers)
Real GDP Growth (%) . High is ‘good’
Productivity ($/person; $/hour worked – and alternative currencies)
taxation rate (%), Low is ‘good’
• Common, comparable data sources
Research and standard statistical techniques to fill gaps
• Correlation of multiple fields into a single index
Standard statistical techniques
• Mapping into a comparable index
Normal (bell) curve – mapped from 0% - 100%
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29. GlobalArenaRank™ – Example
Labor Market Flexibility
• Select the locations to be analyzed
• Choose, standardize validate (correlation analysis) index components
Difficulty of hiring index
Rigidity of hours worked index
Difficulty of Redundancy index
Redundancy Cost
• Adjust data sources so that ‘good’ is always interpreted the same way
• Perform correlation statistical analysis
• Map results into Normal Curve, determine Standard deviation
• Convert results into percentages (mean = 50%)
Low percentage corresponds to less than mean
High percentage corresponds to higher than mean
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30. GlobalArenaRank™ – Partial Result
Labor Market Flexibility
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31. GlobalArenaRank™ – Process sequence
• Repeat the process
Remaining components
Taxation
Labor Market Productivity
Labor Market Cost
Labor Market Flexibility
Socio-economic stability
IT Infrastructure
Quality of Life
Cost of Living
Etc.
 Create Ranking Database (indices, countries)
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32. GlobalArenaRank™ – Consolidated Result
Decision Criteria Weighting
• Get Decision Criteria input from client
• Generate consolidated result
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33. The Data Sources
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34. The Data Sources
Variable definitions:
• GDP per capita (International monetary fund, 2010)
– Gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita is a measure for the value of all final goods
and services produced within a nation in a given year divided by the average (or mid-year) population for the same
year.
• Average salary for the ICT sector (Economic research institute, 2010)
– Average salaries are straight-time, gross pay, and exclusive of premium pay. Included are base wage and salary rates,
cost-of-living allowances, guaranteed pay, hazardous-duty pay, incentive pay including commissions and production
bonuses, and on-call pay. Excluded are back pay, jury duty pay, overtime pay, severance pay, shift differentials, non-
production bonuses, and tuition reimbursements.
• Labour productivity per person employed (Eurostat, 2010)
– Gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure for the economic activity. It is defined
• as the value of all goods and services produced less the value of any goods or
• services used in their creation. GDP per person employed is intended to give an overall impression of the productivity of
national economies expressed in relation to the European Union (EU-27) average. If the index of a country is higher than
100, this country's level of GDP per person employed is higher than the EU average and vice versa.
• Telephones – mobile cellular per thousand inhabitants (CIA Word Factbook, GA calculations, 2009)
– This figure gives the country’s number of mobile cellular telephone subscribers per thousand inhabitants.
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35. The Data Sources
• Internet users per thousand inhabitants (CIA World Factbook, GA calculations, 2009)
– The number of users within a country, expressed per thousand inhabitants, that access the Internet. Statistics vary
from country to country and may include users who access the Internet at least several times a week to those who
access it only once within a period of several months.
• Internet hosts per thousand inhabitants (CIA World Factbook, GA calculations, 2010)
– This indicator lists the number of Internet hosts available within a country per thousand inhabitants. An Internet host is
a computer connected directly to the Internet; normally an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) computer is a host. Internet
users may use either a hard-wired terminal, at an institution with a mainframe computer connected directly to the
Internet, or may connect remotely by way of a modem via telephone line, cable, or satellite to the Internet Service
Provider's host computer. The number of hosts is one indicator of the extent of Internet connectivity.
• Graduates in tertiary education (United Nations, 2009)
– The total number of a country’s tertiary education graduates.
• Students enrolled in tertiary education (United Nations, 2009)
– The total number of a country’s students enrolled in tertiary education.
• Labour force (CIA World Factbook, 2009)
– The country’s total labour force figure.
• Unemployment rate (CIA World Factbook, 2010)
– This number contains the percent of the labour force that is without jobs.
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36. The Data Sources
• Difficulty of hiring index (the World Bank, 2010)
– The Difficulty of Hiring index measures (i) whether term contracts can only be used for temporary tasks; (ii) the
maximum duration of term contracts; and (iii) the ratio of the mandated minimum wage (or apprentice wage, if
available) to the average value-added per working population.
• Rigidity of hours index. (the World Bank, 2010)
– The Rigidity of Hours index has five components: (i) whether night work is restricted; (ii) whether weekend work is
allowed; (iii) whether the workweek consists of five-and-a-half days or more; (iv) whether the workday can extend to 12
hours or more (including overtime); and (v) whether the annual paid vacation days are 21 days or less.
• Difficulty of redundancy index (the World Bank, 2010)
– The difficulty of redundancy index has eight components: (i) whether redundancy is not grounds for dismissal; (ii)
whether the employer needs to notify the labour union or the labour ministry for firing one redundant worker; (iii)
whether the employer needs to notify the labour union or the labour ministry for group dismissals; (iv) whether the
employer needs approval from the labour union or the labour ministry for firing one redundant worker; (v) whether the
employer needs approval from the labour union or the labour ministry for group dismissals; (vi) whether the law
mandates training or replacement prior to dismissal; (vii) whether priority rules apply for dismissals; and (viii) whether
priority rules apply for re-employment.
• Redundancy costs (the World Bank, 2010)
– The redundancy costs indicator measures the cost of advance notice requirements, and severance payments and
penalties due when firing a worker, expressed in terms of weekly wages.
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37. The Data Sources
• Received FDI per capita (CIA World Factbook, GA calculations, 2009)
– The level of accumulated foreign investment in a country, expressed per capita. Foreign investment refers to long term
participation by country A into country B. It usually involves participation in management, joint venture, transfer of
technology and expertise.
• Political stability index (the World Bank, 2008)
– This criterion measures the country’s political stability from the following nine dimensions: (1) genocidal incidents
involving communal victims or mixed communal and political victims; (2) the occurrence of a civil war; (3) the number of
assassinations per thousand population; (4) the number of extraconstitutional or forced changes in the top government
elite and/or its effective control of the nation’s power structure; (5) the number of illegal or forced changes in the top
government elite, any attempt at such change, or any successful or unsuccessful armed rebellion whose aim is
independence from the central government; (6) violent demonstrations or clashes involving more than a hundred
citizens involving the use of physical force; (7) the number of major government crises, where a crisis is defined as any
rapidly developing situation threatening to bring the downfall of the present regime, excluding instances of revolt aimed
at overthrow; (8) the number of times in a year that a new premier is named and/or 50 percent of the cabinet posts are
occupied by new ministers; and (9) the number of basic alterations in a state’s constitutional structure, the extreme
case being the adoption of a new constitution that significantly alters the prerogatives of the various branches of
government.
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38. The Data Sources
• Index of economic freedom (the Heritage Foundation, 2010)
– Economic freedom is defined as the absence of government coercion or constraint on the production, distribution, or
consumption of goods and services beyond the extent necessary for citizens to protect and maintain liberty itself. In
other words, people are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in the ways they feel are most productive. In order
to measure economic freedom, the index is comprised of ten broad categories:
o Trade policy
o Fiscal burden of the government
o Government intervention in the economy
o Monetary policy
o Capital flows and foreign investment
o Banking and finance
o Wages and prices
o Property rights
o Regulation and
o Informal market activity
• Corruption perception index (Transparency International, 2010)
– The corruption perception index measures the country’s degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public
officials and politicians. This criterion focuses on corruption in the public sector and defines corruption as the abuse of
public office for private gain. This index incorporates the misuse of public power for private benefits, with a focus, for
example, on bribe-taking by public officials in public procurement.
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39. The Data Sources
• Cost of living – housing (Economic research institute, 2010)
– The monthly rent for 2 bedroom 80 sq.mt. flat in US dollars.
• Cost of living – consumables (Economic research institute, 2010)
– The price of one Big Mac or equivalent 100 gram meat sandwich (with toppings) in US dollars.
• Cost of living – health care (Economic research institute, 2010)
– The cost of an Office Visit with general practitioner for physical exam in US dollars.
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40. 7 Contact
Thurgau Business Development Agency
Zürcherstrasse 183, CH – 8510 Frauenfeld
Your contact person: Ms. Natasa Rosic
natasa.rosic@tg.ch
+41 52 724 26 06
Global Arena AG
Beethovenstrasse 47, CH – 8002 Zürich
Your contact person: Mr. Kris Mattens
Kris.mattens@global-arena.com
+32 (0) 486 14 10 50
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