On 15 December 2009, armasuisse, Swissmem and GRPM (Groupe Romand pour le Matériel de Défense et de Sécurité) signed an agreement in Bern for the establishment of an Offset Office Berne. This office aims at optimizing the cooperation and coordination between armasuisse and the industry during the implementation of offset commitments.
The office, which will start on 1 January 2010 with Dr. Albert Gaide (reprensentative Swissmem) and Giovanni Giunta (reprensentative GRPM), has three main goals: contacts with parties committed to offset, checking the validity of offset transactions and their eligibility. In this sense activities and events are organized in order to establish contacts and to explain how exactly offset works.
In 2008 the Federal Council decided that the offset processes had to be optimized. On the basis of a new Offset Policy 2010 this is to be implemented, one of the instruments being the establishment of an Offset Office.
Consequently the Offset Office, by supervision of armasuisse, will review the handling of the individual offset programs with the aim of achieving high-quality business opportunities for the Swiss industry, and dealing with the respective committed sums in an economically responsible manner. Another goal is transparency toward all interested parties (industry, administration and politics), thus ensuring the traceability of these transactions.
The costs for this office are paid by financial contributions of those benefitting from industrial participations (0.1 % of the eligible offset value), which are administrated by the Centre Patronal Berne as trust organization. This office is the first PPP project (Public Private Partnership) within the Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) for the joint accomplishment of a public task together with private partners, with the project remaining under the control of the public authorities.
What is offset?
Offsets or industrial participations are all types of compensation transactions in connection with defense procurements abroad.
Direct offsets are primarily transactions which are directly connected to the respective defense procurement. Direct offsets are realized to create capacities or know-how contributing to maximum autonomous maintenance, quality maintenance and upgrading of a system, and to the growth of the armed forces and of core capabilities of security and defense relevant industries.
Indirect offsets are not connected to the respective defense procurement. This type of industrial participation is primarily related to industrial contracts, offset-relevant financing activities, technology transfers, joint developments, marketing/sales supports, etc. and supplements the direct offsets, whereas 100 % of the value related to foreign supplier contracts always has to be compensated. As far as their volume is concerned, the indirect offsets are usually clearly higher than the direct ones.
Contact for queries: Kaj-Gunnar Sievert Head Communication armasuisse +41 31 324 62 47