Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe, and is a landlocked country where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.

Due to its location, Switzerland has traditionally been and continue to be at the cross roads of major international trade routes. From Switzerland, the gateway to Europe, you can reach all major cities of the Continent in two hours or less. This is one of the reasons why Switzerland became a center for international business contacts and organizations.

Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Central Plateau and the Jura. While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 7.9 million people concentrates mostly on the Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found. Among them are the two global cities and economic centers of Zurich and Geneva.
Swiss culture has contributed notably to literature, art, and music. It is an amalgam of the German, French, and Italian cultures embodied in the Swiss linguistic regions; however, it is separated from these parent cultures, for example, by Swiss dialects and cultural cross-pollination. From early times Switzerland has been exposed to many foreign influences, and as early as the Middle Ages the country had achieved a high cultural level. Carolingian culture, particularly painting and Romanesque architecture, flourished, and the Saint Gall monastery were a brilliant center of Western culture. Since then most European cultural trends, such as humanism and the Reformation, have been assimilated