Economy
Served by an international airport in the parish of Relva (Ponta Delgada-João Paulo II International Airport), the municipality is the principal port of entry for goods entering and people arriving in the Azores. SATA International and SATA Air Açores have their head offices in Ponta Delgada. It is also the primary location of the services provided by the government, with many of the ministries located in this municipal seat, including the Regional Presidency and several secretariats. In actuality, the municipality of Ponta Delgada presents a glimpse of the divergent economic events that exist in the Azores. With a strong concentration of service activities, the municipality is an important industrial and agricultural centre. The Arrifes-Covoada basin is the main bread-basket on the island of São Miguel, in addition to all the parishes located around the rim of the Sete Cidades Massif. In 1999, there were 1039 companies whose operational seat were in Ponta Delgada, 45.4% of the companies of the Azores. Of this companies, 4.4% were in the primary sector, 13.7% in secondary industries and 81.9% in the tertiary service sector. The volume of sales (in 2000) was equivalent to 1,458 million Euros. This value strongly lean to those service industries that have concentrated their sales volumes in the region, including banking, computer programming/services, corporate and commercial services and tourism.
In tourism, Ponta Delgada accounted for a 34% the hotel spaces in the region, and 46% of overnight trips (1997).
Several newspapers are published in Ponta Delgada, including Acoriano Oriental (one of the oldest continuing daily newspapers in the country) and the Diario dos Acores.
Near the harbour of Ponta Delgada a broad gauge railway was used several times to build and enlarge the harbor. The track used a seven-foot gauge, but it is unclear if this was Isambard Kingdom Brunel's 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) Brunel gauge, or an exact 7-foot (2,134 mm) gauge.
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Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get “a good job,” but to perform well a certain work; and, even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The basis of political economy is non-interference. The only safe rule is found in the self-adjusting meter of demand and supply. Do not legislate. Meddle, and you snap the sinews with your sumptuary laws.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)