More than 20 years ago, immediately following the onset of China's economic reforms, one of the primary founders of CH-ina made his very first trip to the country to initiate a garment sourcing business. Being one of the earliest Swiss nationals to enter the budding Chinese market and set-up an operation in the mid-80s, he was then presented with the extraordinary circumstances that would later on bring about the formation of the CH-ina concept.

This summarized timeline of CH-ina's development, even before it's official inception, clearly illustrates the amount of know-how and substantial experience that has shaped the present organization. as well as establish the solid groundwork for its future:

1986   |   1988   |   1991    |   1993   |   1994   |    1995   |   1996   |   2001    |   2005   |   2006   |    2007

1986

• First trip to China of Founding Partner, Nicolas Musy
• Initial development of garment and textile sourcing business

1988

• Nicolas Musy relocates and resides in the Shanghai area
• Set up of Quality Control (QC) process and on-the-spot production follow-up for the garment sourcing business

1991

• Yang Kai joins and becomes one of CH-ina's Founding Partners

1993

• Initial set up of the production facility of Nove Marzo China, the first subsidiary company of a Swiss SME in China
• Concept finalization, preparation, negotiation, legal documentation and registration of the subsidiary

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1994

• Completion of factory construction and set up of full production processes, along with Quality Assurance systems
• Administrative operations, recruitment of human resources and training were finalized, completing the 14-month process for a foreign SME subsidiary set up in China
• First batch of high-quality knitwear manufactured in Nove Marzo's Chinese subsidiary is exported to top boutiques on Zurich Bahnhofstrasse in Switzerland

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1995

• Nicolas Musy and Yang Kai set up Nove Marzo Shanghai representative office as the precursor to CH-ina

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1996

• The representative office conducts its first market research and advisory project for Swiss companies following the successful set up of Nove Marzo China

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2001

• CH-ina develops the concept and manages the complete set up of Swiss Center Shanghai, a non-profit joint venture, managed and majority-owned by Foundation Swiss Centers

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2005

• CH-ina launches the comprehensive Swiss-China Survey among 200+ managers of Swiss SMEs in China and Switzerland

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2006

• CH-ina compiles the results of the Swiss-China Survey and manages the development of the first edition of "Behind the China Kaleidoscope", a joint project of Seco, Osec, Swiss Center Shanghai, SwissCham China and the Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Switzerland
• "Behind the China Kaleidoscope", the most comprehensive China entry and operations guide ever, is published

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2007

• CH-ina publishes "The China Human Resources Paradox", the first Swiss-China Human Resources survey and manual
• CH-ina opens its second office in Shanghai and establishes its presence in Beijing and Shenzhen

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