🇧🇷 Belo Horizonte is the sixth-largest city in Brazil. The city is anchor to the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area, ranked as the third-most populous metropolitan area in Brazil. Belo Horizonte is the capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil's second-most populous state. It is the first planned modern city in Brazil.
The region was first settled in the early 18th century, but the city as it is known today was planned and constructed in the 1890s, to replace Ouro Preto as the capital of Minas Gerais. The city features a mixture of contemporary and classical buildings, and is home to several modern Brazilian architectural icons, most notably the Pampulha Complex. In planning the city, Aarão Reis and Francisco Bicalho sought inspiration in the urban planning of Washington, D.C. The city has employed notable programs in urban revitalization and food security, for which it has been awarded international accolades.
The city is built on several hills, and is completely surrounded by mountains. There are several large parks in the immediate surroundings of Belo Horizonte. The Mangabeiras Park (Parque das Mangabeiras), 6 km (4 mi) south-east of the city centre in the hills of Curral Ridge (Serra do Curral), has a broad view of the city. It has an area of 2.35 km2 (580 acres), of which 0.9 km2 (220 acres) is covered by the native forest. The Jambeiro Woods (Mata do Jambeiro) nature reserve extends over 912 hectares (2,250 acres), with vegetation typical of the Atlantic Forest. More than 100 species of birds inhabit the reserve, as well as 10 species of mammals.
Belo Horizonte was one of the host cities of the 1950 and the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Additionally, the city shared as host of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup and the football tournament during the 2016 Summer Olympics.
1Economy Belo Horizonte receives large numbers of visitors, as it is in the Brazilian main economic axis, exerting influence even on other states. Multinational and Brazilian companies, such as Google and Oi, maintain offices in the city. The service sector plays a very important role in the economy of Belo Horizonte, being responsible for 85% of the city's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with other industry making up most of the remaining 15%. Belo Horizonte has a developed industrial sector, being traditionally a hub of the Brazilian siderurgical and metallurgical industries, as the state of Minas Gerais has always been very rich in minerals, specifically iron ore.
Belo Horizonte is the distribution and processing centre of a rich agricultural and mining region and the nucleus of a burgeoning industrial complex. Production is centred on steel, steel products, automobiles, and textiles. Gold, manganese, and gemstones mined in the surrounding region are processed in the city. The main industrial district of the city was set during the 1940s in Contagem, a part of greater Belo Horizonte. Multinational companies like FIAT (which opened its plant in Betim in 1974), Arcelor, and Toshiba have subsidiaries in the region, along with textiles like Group Rachelle Textil, Ematex and Cedro Textil, cosmetic, food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, furnishing and refractory companies. Among the companies headquartered in the city are steel producer Açominas (held by Gerdau, one of the largest multinationals originated in Brazil); Usiminas; Belgo-Mineira (held by Arcelor); Acesita (partially held by Arcelor); mobile communication Vivo; and Telecom Italia Mobile, Dasein Executive Search, executive coaching company, as well as the NYSE-listed electrical company CEMIG. Leading steel product makers Sumitomo Metals of Japan and Vallourec of France also have plans to construct an integrated steel works on the outskirts of the city.
There are also a large number of small enterprises in the technology sector with regional to nation-wide success, particularly in the fields of computing and biotechnology. Because of both governmental and private funding in the diversification of its economy, the city has become an international reference in Information Technology and Biotechnology, and is also cited because of the advanced corporate and university research in Biodiesel fuel. The number of jobs in the Information sector has been growing at annual rates above 50%. The Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Area, composed of 33 cities under the capital's direct influence, is home to 16% of the country's biotechnology companies, with annual sales of over R$550 million.
Projects in these fields are likely to expand because of integration between universities, the oil company Petrobras and the Brazilian Government. One of the largest events that ever took place in the city, the Inter-American Development Bank meeting, occurred in 2005 and attracted people from all over the world.
For a long time it was marked by the predominance of its industrial sector, but from the 1990s there has been a constant expansion of the service sector economy, particularly in computer science, biotechnology, business tourism, fashion and the jewellery making. The city is considered to be a strategic leader in the Brazilian economy. The move towards business tourism transformed the capital into a national hub for this segment of the tourist industry.
1Belo Horizonte is rated Gamma - by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) which evaluates and ranks the relationships between world cities in the context of globalisation. Gamma level cities are cities that link smaller economic regions into the world economy.
Belo Horizonte has a population of over 2,700,000 people. Belo Horizonte also forms the centre of the wider Belo Horizonte metropolitan area which has a population of over 6,084,430 people. Belo Horizonte is ranked #154 for startups with a score of 3.763.
To set up a UBI Lab for Belo Horizonte see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork
Belo Horizonte is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Gastronomy see: https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities
Twin Towns, Sister Cities Belo Horizonte has links with:
🇺🇸 Austin, USA 🇵🇪 Chimbote, Perú 🇪🇨 Cuenca, Ecuador 🇰🇷 Daegu, South Korea 🇺🇸 Fort Lauderdale, USA 🇪🇸 Granada, Spain 🇨🇺 Havana, Cuba 🇸🇾 Homs, Syria 🇳🇬 Lagos, Nigeria 🇦🇴 Luanda, Angola 🇳🇮 Masaya, Nicaragua 🇺🇸 Newark, USA 🇭🇳 Tegucigalpa, Honduras 🇱🇾 Tripoli, Libya 🇱🇧 Zahlé, LebanonUNESCO Creative Cities for Gastronomy include: 🇹🇷 Afyonkarasihar 🇮🇹 Alba 🇵🇪 Arequipa 🇰🇭 Battambang 🇧🇷 Belém 🇧🇷 Belo Horizonte 🇦🇺 Bendigo 🇮🇹 Bergamo 🇳🇴 Bergen 🇨🇴 Buenaventura 🇪🇸 Burgos 🇨🇳 Chaozhou 🇨🇳 Chengdu 🇧🇴 Cochabamba 🇪🇸 Dénia 🇲🇽 Ensenada 🇧🇷 Florianópolis 🇨🇭 Fribourg 🇰🇷 Gangneung 🇹🇷 Gaziantep 🇹🇷 Hatay 🇬🇷 Heraklion 🇿🇦 Hermanus 🇮🇳 Hyderabad 🇵🇭 Iloilo City 🇰🇷 Jeonju 🇲🇴 Macao 🇲🇽 Mérida 🇨🇲 Nkongsamba 🇸🇪 Östersund 🇿🇦 Overstrand Hermanus 🇵🇦 Panama City 🇧🇷 Paraty 🇮🇹 Parma 🇹🇭 Phuket 🇨🇴 Popayán 🇪🇨 Portoviejo 🇮🇷 Rasht 🇺🇸 San Antonio 🇨🇳 Shunde 🇯🇵 Tsuruoka 🇺🇸 Tucson 🇨🇳 Yangzhou 🇱🇧 Zahlé
🇧🇷 Nova Serrana -19.876
🇧🇷 Santa Luzia -19.767
🇧🇷 Ribeirão das Neves -19.766
🇧🇷 Vespasiano -19.753
🇲🇺 Port Mathurin -19.683
🇧🇷 Montes Claros -43.85
🇧🇷 Santa Luzia -43.85
🇧🇷 Barra do Piraí -43.817
🇧🇷 Conselheiro Lafaiete -43.783
🇧🇷 Vespasiano -43.948
🇧🇷 Pedro Leopoldo -44.033
🇧🇷 São José de Ribamar -44.05
🇧🇷 Ribeirão das Neves -44.087
🇧🇷 Volta Redonda -44.094
🇧🇷 Paço do Lumiar -44.169
🇧🇷 Barra Mansa -44.169
Locations Near: Belo Horizonte -43.936,-19.9236
🇧🇷 Nova Lima -43.833,-19.983 d: 12.6
🇧🇷 Sabará -43.8,-19.883 d: 14.9
🇧🇷 Contagem -44.093,-19.919 d: 16.4
🇧🇷 Ibirité -44.06,-20.021 d: 16.9
🇧🇷 Vespasiano -43.948,-19.753 d: 19
🇧🇷 Santa Luzia -43.85,-19.767 d: 19.6
🇧🇷 Ribeirão das Neves -44.087,-19.766 d: 23.6
🇧🇷 Betim -44.183,-19.967 d: 26.3
🇧🇷 Pedro Leopoldo -44.033,-19.617 d: 35.6
🇧🇷 Sete Lagoas -44.233,-19.45 d: 61.2
Antipodal to: Belo Horizonte 136.064,19.924
🇯🇵 Uruma 127.85,26.367 d: 18911.8
🇯🇵 Ginowan 127.78,26.279 d: 18912.4
🇯🇵 Itoman 127.65,26.117 d: 18913.1
🇯🇵 Tomigusuku 127.667,26.15 d: 18912.2
🇯🇵 Naha 127.702,26.199 d: 18911.7
🇯🇵 Urasoe 127.734,26.254 d: 18910.5
🇯🇵 Okinawa City 127.793,26.343 d: 18909
🇯🇵 Nago 127.978,26.592 d: 18905.7