Economic Development Board (EDB)

The Sonoma County Economic Development Board (EDB) provides assistance services directed toward encouraging the startup, retention and expansion of Sonoma County businesses and jobs, particularly with small businesses; creation of new jobs and employment opportunities; and diversification of economic activity and strengthening the County's tax base. The EDB has two major functions:

• To provide information and referral services to help local businesses to start up, succeed, and grow.
• To develop and disseminate factual data regarding significant economic activities, trends and projections for Sonoma County. In addition, the Economic Development Board performs numerous activities on behalf of the Board of Supervisors ranging from coordination to analysis of issues impacting Sonoma County.

Sonoma County

Sonoma County is an hour north of San Francisco in the heart of the California wine country. The presence of many multinational corporations, such as Alcatel, Nokia, Cisco, JDS Uniphase and Agilent, are a testament to Sonoma County's burgeoning high-tech industry and have given it the name "telecom valley".

The increasing significance of Swiss companies in various economic sectors, such as electronics (Schurter Inc., Multi Contact USA, Lemo, Small Precision Tools), and wineries (Hess Collection, Cuvaison, and Merryvale) in Sonoma and neighboring Napa County, has sparked strengthening economic ties between Switzerland and California through the creation of a company-supported foundation.