There are three major economic centers in Brazil, each has its own specialities and advantages, in this article you will find a briefe description of each of these centers and who can you find there.
São Paulo, the money state
São Paulo city, the capital of São Paulo state, is the largest city in South America with more than eleven Million residents. The commercial boom in São Paulo began on 1696 when coffee started to be planted in the area. In a few years, São Paulo became the major exporter of coffee in the world.
Nowadays São Paulo is the one that most contribute for the development of Brazil economy, concentrating more than 30% of the national GDP. São Paulo is also the economy hub of Brazil, especially when talking about business and technology.
In the last years, some of São Paulo industries are migrating to other areas in the countryside of São Paulo state, such as Campinas, Sorocaba and São Caetano in order to reduce taxes payment, yet there is a good transportation connection from all these areas to the capital.
Hosting the major business fairs of the country, a big number of offices and the major stock exchange, São Paulo considered a mandatory destination to any entrepreneur that wants to know what the Brazilian business is.
Differently from São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, or just Rio, as natives use to call it, is important to the Brazilian scenario since the country's foundation. The city was the second country’s capital from 1763 until 1960 until the foundation of Brasilia.Known as the wonderful city, Rio attracts more than three million tourists per year and in carnival period, the number of tourists outweighs the World Cup numbers. What enchants anyone that goes to Rio is the mix of urban life and beaches lifestyle.
For those who think that Rio is only a cultural and leisure destiny, the surprise happens when petroleum is mentioned. The biggest petroleum area of the country is in Rio de Janeiro, and companies as Petrobras are investing on studies to develop the area and qualify labors.
Rio de Janeiro is the second biggest city of the country, contributing for the economic development with the second Brazilian GDP. It is not difficult to find a foreigners that still takes Rio de Janeiro as the Brazilian capital.
Planned to host the coming world’s biggest sport events, world cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016, Rio is a target for major investments mainly in infrastructure and security.
latest news is that the plan for a bullet train connecting Rio to São Paulo was just approved, that will reduce the time to pass those 300 miles from 6-8 hours by bus to only 50 minutes
Brasília, the political city
Brasília is a different city from the major ones in Brazil. Planned by the architect Oscar Niemeyer and ordered by President Juscelino Kubitschek in order to be the new Brazilian Capital, the city was founded in 1960. More than sixty thousand workers constructed the city in only four years in order to comply with a determination of the Brazilian constitution. Interesting fact : Brasilia is the largest city in the world that did not exist at the beginning of the 20th century.
Nowadays, all Brazilian government activity is concentrated in Brasília, situated at a special state names Distriro Federal (“federal district”), being reference for anyone who talks about politics or for those targeting their business to work with the government and it’s subsidiaries.
There are others yet smaller economic centers in Brazil we will discuss more about them in future articles. Next article will describe the connection between location and taxation. stay tuned ..