Geneva – Each year Messe Frankfurt, organizers of Heimtextil, designate one country as the show's partner. The Partner Country for Heimtextil 2000 is Switzerland. This year, the partner country's economic and political leaders have joined with its textile designers and producers in organizing an elaborate marketing campaign to capitalize on the Partnerland project in an effort to impress the expected 70,000 visitors with the creative and engineering expertise of Switzerland.

More than 60 Swiss companies will exhibit at Heimtextil with the aim of demonstrating how a comparably small but highly sophisticated textile industry in a country with extremely high costs can prosper and be successful in international markets.

The inventor and designer Benjamin Thut has won the project competition for the design of the Swiss presentation. In his concept, he invites Heimtextil visitors to take a walk through the textile valleys of his country. He uses the yellow hiking signs, typical of Switzerland, to point the way from the main entrance of the fair through the alpine panorama of Switzerland — as seen from Frankfurt.

He also designed, in cooperation with the Swiss Tourist Office, quiet areas in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the fair to give visitors the chance to experience the Swiss mountain landscape close up and to provide information about attractive holiday areas in Switzerland.

Also integrated into the overall project are Swiss restaurants, and a special ''Swiss Evening'' presentation on January 13, which be attended by some of the country's economic and political leaders. Twenty Swiss designers have prepared a special presentation in the Heimtextil Trend Hall (7).

''Alpine panoramas and avant-garde textile products are no accident because 'Made in Switz-erland' is based on both tradition and modern technology,'' wrote the Buro fur Kommunikation in its press release. ''With its historical foundations and textile roots, Switzerland points the way into the next millennium.''