Guadalajara

Guadalajara at a Glance

The state of Jalisco and its capital Guadalajara are found on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The over six million inhabitants of Jalisco represent 6% of the Mexico's total population and generate 6.2% (2006) of the country's GDP.

Jalisco has instituted an Investment Promotion Law. Its benefits include a waver on payroll taxes and other investment facilitation incentives granted by the state. These initiatives are promoted by the State Economic Promotion Council (Consejo Estatal de Promoción Económica).

Jalisco is connected to the NAFTA access route to the United States and Canada, and is a short distance from the major port of Manzanillo. This makes the state an attractive destination for foreign and domestic investment.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

From January 1999 to December 2006, approximately more than US$4.7 billion of new investment entered the state of Jalisco (almost 3.3 % of total FDI in Mexico). Of this investment, most went to the manufacturing sector (78.5%), followed by services (14.0%), trade (5.1%) and other sectors (1.3%).

Top five countries with investment in Jalisco are:

Country	Percent of Total FDI in Thousands USD
1. United States	49.8
2. Netherlands	24.3
3. Singapore	4.6
4. Germany	4.5
5. Canada	4.3

Key Sectors

With more than 1,800 foreign companies, the state of Jalisco is a leader in many important sectors of the Mexican economy such as information technology, electronics, tourism, food and beverage processing, auto parts, retail, textile-garment, aerospace and plastics.

Jalisco is the top national producer of many agricultural products including raspberries, watermelons, eggs, feed corn, pork and goat milk.

The foreign companies in the state are mainly located in Guadalajara (40%), Puerto Vallarta (22%), Zapopan (22%), Tlaquepaque (4%) and El Salto (3%).

Top Corporations

Jalisco has obtained important investment from many renowned transnational companies including: Jabil Circuits, Hewlett Packard, Hersheys, Siemens, Gatorade, Nike, Sabritas, Cemex, Baker & Mckenzie, Ernst & Young, Flextronics, Sanmina, IBM, Kodak, Bayer, Tequila Herradura, Hotel Hilton, Banamex Citigroup, Scotiabank, Intel, American Express, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cisco Systems, Omnilife, Hitachi.