NEW YORK, March 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Switzerland officially recognized IBM, InterMune, KAYAK, Maxwell Technologies and Procter & Gamble with the "Tell Award", presented for significant recent inward investment projects from the Americas, reports Daniel Bangser, Director North America for Switzerland Trade & Investment Promotion.

More than 200 invited guests and officials from the Swiss government were welcomed by Ambassador Francois Barras, Consul General of Switzerland in New York, to a program on March 6 hosted by Bloomberg at its headquarters. The awards, named for legendary Swiss hero William Tell, were presented to senior executives of the honoree companies by H.E. Manuel Sager, Ambassador of Switzerland to the United States. 

In accepting the awards, the companies cited the Swiss culture of innovation, availability of multilingual talent, solid political and financial stability, access to local university networks, first rate infrastructure and logistics, and flexible labor market as top reasons for having succeeded and grown faster as a result of their investments in Switzerland. The winning projects are located in the Cantons of Basel-Landschaft (InterMune), Fribourg (Maxwell Technologies), Geneva (Procter & Gamble), and Zurich (IBM and KAYAK).

Ambassador Sager said, "In Switzerland we welcome both large and small companies as investors, as demonstrated by those being honored this year that range in size but nevertheless are very important in contributing to the spirit of innovation that is Switzerland's forte." Mr. Bangser added, "Switzerland continues to attract investment projects due to its attractive overall business climate including high rankings in key investment selection criteria. For example, in the World Economic Forum's 2012-13 Global Competitiveness Report Switzerland holds the top position for the 4th consecutive year. Switzerland also outperformed all 27 EU member states in the 2011 Innovation Union Scoreboard."

About the Tell Awards: 

Dating from 2004, the Tell Awards program is sponsored by Switzerland Trade and Investment Promotion, the Swiss federal agency that assists companies expanding internationally in their evaluation and setup process.  Previous Tell Award winners include Abbott, Bombardier, Sigma-Aldrich, Disney Research, Yahoo!, Medtronic, Autodesk, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, eBay, and Google.

Note: The Tell Awards were originally scheduled for October 30, 2012, but postponed due to Hurricane Sandy.

For more information on the program and speakers, please visit: www.bloomberglink.com/tellawards.

SOURCE Switzerland Trade and Investment Promotion