Goiás, one of the 26 Brazilian states and a Federal District, is located in the mid west region of the country occupying an area of 340,086 km². Seventh state in territorial area, Goiás has a privileged geographic position. Making border to the north with the State of Tocantins, to the south with Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul, to the east with Bahia and Minas Gerais and finally to the west with Mato Grosso. Goiás has 246 municipalities.

Goiânia, its capital, is the heart of the Metropolitan Area, composed by 20 municipalities where there are more than 2 million inhabitants. Despite having big industries, it is the Services sector the support of its economy. The capital is an excellence center in medicine and it is consolidating its vocation for the business tourism and events. It presents, furthermore, good indexes of quality of life, above the national average. Goiânia also holds the title of the greenest city in the country.

Tropical climate predominates in Goiás, with two defined seasons: a moist summer and a dry winter, the average temperature varies between 18°C and 26° C. The rainfall index from September to April fluctuates between 1.200 to 2.500 mm, being more concentrated rains during summer.

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP)

Goiás is the ninth Brazilian economy with a GDP of US$ 36.2 billions (2007) that represents 2.45% of the national GDP. The per capita income is US$ 6,415.55. Estimate for the year of 2008 point out for an amount of US$ 39.3 billions. In the last ten years, the economy of Goiás increased 46.21%, bigger than the Brazilian average of 32.36%. This expressive result is due to the evolution of the agribusiness of Goiás as well as its commerce.

Gross Domestic Product (GPD) – 2000/05/07

Breakdown of the GDP

Among the large sectors of economic activities, Services is the main one in Goiás, with 62.01% of the wealth production. In this sector one can highlight the trade, the retailer and the wholesaler, enough dynamic, mainly in the capital, as well as real estate activities. The industrial economy participates in the GDP of Goiás in 26.97% and the farming one with 11.01%. Although it has inferior share, the farming sector is of great importance for the economy of Goiás, to the agricultural industry, one of the activities more powerful of the state, as well as in the production of meats, derived from milk and soya, tomato sauces and seasoning and other items of the food industry, and also the ethanol production.

Breakdown of the Gross Domestic Product in Goiás - 2007
Activity	Added Value
	Current Prices	Participation
	(US$ million)	(%)
Farming	3.499	11,01
Industry	8.570	26,97
Services	19.703	62,01
Settled by: Seplan-GO/Sepin/Gerência de Contas Regionais – 2010

ECONOMIC SECTORS

Farming

In spite of the increasing industrialization, farming remains the developmental key of Goiás. The state is the fourth national producer of grains. Its production is around 13.3 millions tons. It represents 9% of the domestic production. The agricultural activity, enough diversified, comes from soya, cotton, sorghum, corn, sugar cane, bean, tomato, among other products.

The livestock of Goiás, highly expressive, puts the state among the great producers of the country. The bovine herd is the 4th one in the Brazilian ranking, formed by 20.5 millions heads, with share of 10.12% in the national effective. Aviculture is in strong development in Goiás, with big poultry plants being built. Poultry grew in the last 5 years 32.87%, resulting in 47.7 millions heads, corresponding to 3.94% of the national flock.

Industry

Goiás is in the vanguard of the food national industry, mining, medicines, car and ethanol. It is one of the leaders in the national ranking of agricultural and mineral commodities and generic medicines production. It is also inserted in the geography of the world car industry, with two car manufacture plants and one of agricultural machines – the car industry of Goiás already participates in 7% of the Brazilian vehicle production.

The State is in the path to become one of the national leaders in the production of ethanol. Goiás ended the year of 2009 with a production of 2.68 billion of liters of alcohol and its sugar production has reached 1.738 million tons. Currently there are 36 active plants of ethanol and sugar and at least 13 other plants in process of implementation in Goiás.

The mining industry of Goiás is diversified, presenting modern segments and similar management to those big international corporations, adjusting to the scenario of the global economy. There are seven poles distributed along state, with production of copper, gold, cobalt, nickel, niobium, phosphate and vermiculite that occupy important positions in the national productive chain.

The value of the industrial transformation of Goiás resulted in US$ 6.3 billions in 2007. In the industrial structure of the State the dominant segments are: food and beverages, refinement of ore and vehicles and agricultural machines assembly, responsible for 73% of the processing industry of Goiás.

Mining – 2008

Source:DNPM

FOREIGN TRADE

Goiás is presenting in recent years a good performance as an exporter. The business volume has achieved US$ 3.6 billions in 2009. Five years ago it reached US$ 1.1 billion. Imports also presented a great performance over the same period of time, resulting in US$ 2.8 billions. The exporter activity reflects competitive advantages of Goiás in natural resources, being concentrated in basic products, above all agricultural and minerals commodities: soya and meat complexes, corn, copper and special iron alloys, among others.

China, The Netherlands and Russia are the main markets acquiring products from Goiás. Imported products come mainly from South Korea, The United States and Japan, because the big part of the purchases is composed of items for car manufactures and agricultural machines and raw materials for pharmaceutical and fertilizers industries installed in the state. In 2009, Goiás has traded with 151 countries.

Exportation and importation to main countries destiny and origin Goiás - 2009
Countries of destiny	Exportation			Countries of origin	Importation
	US$ FOB	Part (%)			US$ FOB	Part (%)
China	747.552.435	18,3		South Korea	844.510.790	27,7
The Netherlands	444.888.846	10,9		United States	434.145.081	14,2
Spain	252.453.139	6,2		Japan	389.884.632	12,8
Russia	199.308.441	4,9		Thailand	218.426.861	7,2
Índia	192.754.907	4,7		Switzerland	200.124.300	6,6
TOTAL	4.091.751.671	100,0		TOTAL	3.049.860.120	100,0
Source: MDIC Settled by: SEPLAN-GO / SEPIN / Gerência de Estatística Socioeconômica – 2010

INFRASTRUCTURE

Highways

The highways network of Goiás is composed of 24.8 thousand km of which 51% are paved. The main federal highways of the state are the BR-153, which crosses all the state and links the north to the south of the country, the BR-060, which links Goiânia to Brasilia and to the southwest of Goiás and the BR-050, which links Brasilia to the south of Brazil.

Railways

Goiás has also 685 km of the Centro-Atlântica railway that attends the southeast region of the state and Distrito Federal. The Norte-Sul railway, under construction, is already 280 km long built in Goiás and its conclusion is predicted for this year, 2010. With the crucial role of developing the economic profile of midwest Brazil, the Norte-Sul railway will have in the territory of Goiás 1,200 km, and will cross the regions north and central and the powerful southwest of the State of Goiás.

Port of São Simão

The Paranaíba-Tietê-Paraná waterway starts at the Port of São Simão favoring in an economic and sure way the flow of the production of Goiás grains. The Port Complex of São Simão, located in the right margin of the Paranaíba River, in the south of Goiás, is made up of four companies that transport soybean, soybean bran and corn. Therefore, through this port transit most of the main export products of Goiás. Merchandises go out of São Simão, arrive at Pederneiras or Anhembi-SP. From the boats, grains are transferred to wagons that go to the Port of Santos. The complex possesses total storage, considering all terminals, of 89,000 tons and total operational capacity of 2,100 tons/hour.

Internal Custom Station – Porto Seco of Anápolis

The Porto Seco Centro Oeste S.A. is a public use terminal custom storage to handle imported goods or to export it, being used as a facilitator of foreign trade operations. It attends agriculture, siderurgy, construction and chemical pharmaceutical products; forest products and minerals sectors; basic consumer goods (food, beverage and textiles) and durable goods (cars and electrical- electronic apparatus), among others. Through the Porto Seco transit about 22,000 tons of load / month.

The location of Porto Seco is the best one of the entire Brazilian interior, concerning logistics. It is situated in the city of Anápolis-GO, considered the "Clover of Brazil" for the natural facility to integrate all the consumer centers of the country. Distant 55 km from Goiânia and 154 km from Brasilia, in addition to the easy road access, the Porto Seco Centro Oeste has a railway branch line (Ferrovia Centro Atlântica-FCA).

For associating modal road and railways, Porto Seco of Anápolis can transport all kind of cargoes, linking all the Midwest market to other points of the country.

Multimodal Logistical Platform of Goiás

The Multimodal Logistic Platform of Goiás, in phase of implementation in Anápolis, will consolidate the city as one of the main distributing centers of the country. Budgeted in US$ 139 millions and having the participation of private companies, the implementation of the project would be developed in four phases, including an area of 618 hectares. The project predicts terminal of air freight, international airport of freight, centers of service and administration, center of road freight and terminal of railway freight. The area of the first phase of the project was already equipped of infrastructure (pavement, drainage, installation of services of water, electrical energy and telephony) to start receiving logistics and distribution companies.

The platform is located in the road junction in a neighbor area to the Industrial District of Anápolis – DAIA (the biggest of the state) and to Porto Seco Centro-Oeste. This enterprise will be connected to two railways: Centro Atlântica and the “quilômetro zero” (0km) of the Norte-Sul railway. When in full service, the Logistical Platform will combine multimodality, optimization of freights, telematics (advanced data processing transference), promoting, thus, the concept of central of logistical intelligence.

Energy

The State of Goiás possesses currently 59 projects of electrical generation that, together generate 8,659 MW of power. Of that sum, 95% are generated by hydroelectric power plants, 4% by thermo electrical plants and 1% by small hydroelectric power plants (PCHs – Pequenas Centrais Elétricas). There are, under construction, other 41 new projects of power generation with a total of 2,925MW. The hydrological and topographic conditions of the State of Goiás are extremely favorable to the implementation of hydroelectric power plants. The potential hydro electrical to explore in the state is above 4,500 MW.

TAX INCENTIVES AND FINANCIERS

The Industrial Development Program of the State of Goiás-“Produzir” (to produce) was created to contribute with the expansion, modernization and diversification of the industrial economy of Goiás, stimulating the investments of production, the technological renewal and the increase of the State competitiveness. It favors the reduction of production cost of companies, through the financing of up to 73% of the ICMS (tax for products) due by the period of 15 years.

The “Produzir” has the following releases:

• Microproduzir (incentive to the micro companies),
• Teleproduzir (incentive to the implementation of call centers),
• Centroproduzir (incentive to erect distribution centers),
• Logproduzir (incentive to companies acting in logistics) and
• Comexproduzir (Incentive to foreign trade operations)

Besides those incentive programs, Goiás still has resources from the Constitutional Fund of the Midwest (FCO). The FCO was created in 1988 with the objective of contributing to the economic and social development of the Brazilian Midwest. The permanent offer of resources from the Fund, by the Union, (29% for Goiás, 29% for Mato Grosso, 23% for Mato Grosso do Sul and 19% for Distrito Federal) enables long-term financing for economic sectors, generating a new perspective of investments for the businessmen committed to the development of the regional economy.

ENVIRONMENT

The territory of Goiás is covered predominantly by the scattered Cerrado vegetation (a savannah-like vegetation), with trees and bushes of tortuous branches, thick shells, and leaves covered with fur and roots very deep. The savannah used to cover around 70% of the territory of Goiás. The second largest Brazilian and South American biome, after Amazonia, the Cerrado concentrates 1/3 of the national biodiversity and 5% of flora and fauna of the world. Flora of this type of savannah is considered the richest of the world and it is estimated that between 4,000 to 7,000 species dwell this region. The biome was classified as one of the 25 priorities areas of the world for conservation of the biodiversity.

Goiás possesses peculiar characteristics with regard to his hydrography. Its rivers feed three important hydrographic regions of the country (Araguaia / Tocantins, São Francisco and Paraná). The hydrographic network is dense and constituted of rivers of middle and major importance; however the navigability is, partly, harmed by the great number of cascades and rapids. Artificial lakes represent 1.6% of the territory of Goiás and are in number of eight. The lake of Serra da Mesa, formed by the Rio Tocantins dam, is the fifth great Brazil lake in swamped area, 1,758 Km², and the first one in volume of water 54 billions of m³.

Around 5% of the territory of Goiás are demarcated with units of environmental conservation: Two national parks: das Emas and Chapada dos Veadeiros; five defined as state parks, where stands out Park of Serra de Caldas Novas and Park of Terra Ronca, in addition to many other environmental protection units.

COLLEGE EDUCATION

The current network of governmental and private institutions of education in the State of Goiás offers suitable conditions for qualification of technical labor professional course and college level, emphasizing the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), State University of Goiás (UEG), Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Goiás (IFG) with 8 campi, 6 municipal institutions, distributed in several regions of the state, in addition to private college education institutions with 70 establishments (and augmenting).

TOURISM

The tourism in Goiás is anchored by its natural beauties given by the luxuriant fauna and flora of the Cerrado, beautiful cascades, mountains, rivers and plateaus, as also in the recognized historical heritage, with highly representative cultural traditions and culinary rich and tasty. There are nine regions that divide Goiás in a real discover route, adventures, rest and a lot of fun, among which are emphasized:

Agricultural-ecological region - includes the Parque Nacional das Emas - Natural Site of the World Heritage and Reserve of the Biosphere of Pantanal, recognized by the UNESCO. Vale do Araguaia region - this river became one of the better poles of ecotourism, leisure, camping and sport fishing of the country. The entrance gates for the river are the cities of Aragarças, Aruanã and the towns of Bandeirantes and Luís Alves. Do Ouro region - includes cities of Pirenópolis (Historical National Heritage), Corumbá de Goiás (State Historical Site), City of Goiás (Historical Site of the World Heritage) and the State Park of Serra dos Pirineus. Das Aguas region - “the largest hydrothermal source of the world”, with temperatures that vary from 30° to 57ºC and proven therapeutic capacity, is located in Caldas Novas and Rio Quente, municipalities where is found the largest hotel complex of Goiás.