Since the Federal Act on Private Security Services Provided Abroadexternal link was introduced in 2015, all Swiss security companies are obliged to report their operations abroad to the Swiss authorities. Last year, 450 such reports were received by the government – 114 more than in 2016.

Over half of the reported missions involved personal security and the guarding of goods and properties “within a complex environment”, according to the FDFA’s annual report. Activities of this kind saw the biggest increase last year – 279 such missions were carried out, compared to 114 in 2016.

The two other most important sectors of the industry were private intelligence activities (109 registered operations) and so-called “operational or logistical support for armed or security forces” (50 registered operations).

The latter includes operation and maintenance of weapons systems as well as consulting and training. The demand for both these types of operations remained stable compared to the previous year, according to the report.

Source : Swissinfo