Campinas is at the center of Brazil’s most productive area, and is the headquarters of a metropolitan region with a population of three and a half million. Its gross product is equal to that of Chile, and it figures second place in the ranking of cities that attract the most investments in South America. The city is located at the continent’s biggest air/highway transport center, considered as being one of Mercosul’s main access channels. The country’s most important cargo airport, Viracopos International Airport, is also located in Campinas, and an expansion process to make it the biggest in the southern hemisphere is soon to be under way. In its latest report on human development, the United Nations detected two niches for technological innovation in the southern hemisphere, both in Brazil and one of them being Campinas.

Such characteristics have made the region highly attractive to people, wealth, universities and companies like Lucent Technologies, X-Tal Fibercore, Rhodia, Nortel Northern Telecom, Dupont, Compaq, IBM, White Martins, Pirelli, Goodyear, Magnetti Marelli, Eaton, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Daimler-Benz, Bosch, General Electric, Honda, Toyota, Villares, Texas Instruments, Valeo, Robert Bosch, Benchmark Electronics, 3M, Huawei Technologies and many others. 50 of the world’s 500 biggest companies are located in Campinas or surrounding areas. There are close to seventeen thousand establishments dedicated to commerce, communications, finance and other commercial services, representing 55% of the city’s economic activity.

The city is also an important technological center, where large universities and research centers such as Unicamp, Ital, Cati, IAC, CBTI, CPqD and Embrapa are located. There is also a wide range of primary, secondary and technical schools in Campinas, which provide training to the region’s workforce. Culturally, Campinas offers twelve theaters, chamber groups, and one of the two biggest symphony orchestras in the country. One of Brazil’s most important classical composers, Carlos Gomes, whose work is recognized throughout the world and especially in Europe, was born in Campinas.