Seville city

Seville is the capital of Andalusia and the main population centre in the region, one of the largest in size and the most populous in the Iberian Peninsula. Its almost 90,000 square kilometres and over seven million inhabitants make it comparable to nations such as Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria. Seville's recent economic performance has been positive in terms of production and job growth, achieving higher rates of growth than the Spanish and European Union averages. Gross domestic product grew by 4% in 2001 to 15,000 million euro, exceeding the Spanish and EU average growth rates. The consumer price index rose by 3%, slightly lower than the Spanish average of 3.2%.

The key factors influencing the positive trends observed in Seville and its metropolitan area since 1995 include the following: A highly diversified industrial sector with high growth potential. Strengthening and diversification of the city's role as a major Southern European commercial and service centre.

Consolidation of the Sevilla- Tecnópolis Science and Technology Park as a hub of entrepreneurial activity and innovation. Strong performance of the tourist industry, which shows no signs of flagging, in spite of the decline of other traditional inbound tourist markets. Strong growth in the building construction and public works sector.

The key features of Seville's productive structure are as follows:

Seville and its metropolitan area is a major service centre, with the service sector generating more than 65% of GDP. The most important subsectors are public services, accounting for 20% of GDP, in keeping with the city's governance functions, the wholesale and retail trade (12% of GDP), serving an extensive market, the tourist industry (11%), financial and business services (11%) and services related to new technology (7%).

The area is also a highly diversified, leading industrial centre in southern Spain, with construction and industry accounting for 27% of GDP. The building construction and public works sector alone accounts for 11% of GDP. Important local industrial clusters include its aeronautical industry, food industry, energy industry, chemical industry, basic metals industry and transport equipment industry.

The agricultural sector, although not as important as the others, (4.5% of GDP), is the basis of a strong food industry specialised in high-quality Mediterranean products, such as oil, and canned vegetables, beer and soft drinks.

The business sector of Seville's metropolitan area comprises over 70,000 business establishments, which provide employment to over 250,000 people. A breakdown of these figures shows that 70,000 of these jobs are in industrial establishments and over 180,000 in service activities.