Northeastern Mexico

Northeastern Mexico
Northeast
Country	Mexico
Municipalities of Nuevo León	51
Municipalities of Coahuila	38
Municipalities of Tamaulipas	43
Largest City	Monterrey
Government
• Governor of Nuevo León	Jaime Heliodoro Rodríguez Calderón( I)
• Governor of Coahuila	Rubén Moreira Valdez ( PRI)
• Governor of Tamaulipas	Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca ( PAN)
Area
• Total	293,576 km2 (113,350 sq mi)
Population (2005)
• Total	9,718,730
• Density	38.2/km2 (99/sq mi)
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)

Northeastern Mexico, is a geographic region of Mexico, composed of the states of Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. The Northeast is one of the wealthiest and most industrialized regions of Mexico; with Nuevo León having the highest GDP per capita among the Mexican states, closely followed by Coahuila ranked third, and Tamaulipas ranked eighth. It also accounts for approximately 15% of Mexico's nominal gross domestic product, while its population represents only about 8.4% of the population of the whole country. The inhabitants from Northeastern Mexico are often known and referred themselves as "Norestenses" (Spanish for Northeasterners), they might be also referred as "Norteños", a term which they share with people of Northwestern Mexico applied to the inhabitants of all of Northern Mexico.

Northeastern Mexico, contains a wide variety of landscapes, ranging from pine and oak tree forests to prairie, snow-covered mountains in winter to diverse types of deserts. The region, is predominantly mountainous. The Sierra Madre Oriental, sometimes considered an extension of the Rocky Mountains, is one of the largest mountain ranges in Mexico. It runs from Northwest of Coahuila to southeast through a great part of Nuevo León and to a lesser extent Tamaulipas.

The climate is diverse, it varies from region to region, from arid and semi-arid (BS) and (BSh), subtropical (AC) and temperate (CW) and (CeW). Snowfall is common in highlands of Sierra Madre Oriental, especially in the municipalities of Arteaga, Coahuila and Santiago, Galeana and Aramberri in Nuevo León.

Northeastern Mexico plays a national leading role in fields such as aeronautics, the automotive industry, biotechnology, information and communication technologies, the pharmaceutical industry, software development and steel production. Monterrey is a major industrial and business center in Mexico; it is home to transnational conglomerates such as Cemex (the world's largest cement company; FEMSA; Ternium; Grupo Alfa (petrochemicals, food, telecommunications and auto parts); Axtel (the second-largest telecommunications company in Mexico); Vitro (glass manufacturer); Gruma; and Banorte (financial services). Many international conglomerates such as LG, Samsung, HP, Microsoft, Hyundai and Lenovo have regional headquarters and manufacturer plants in Nuevo León as well. Coahuila also has strong manufacture-oriented export economy; Saltillo, its capital city, has a growing automobile industry, hosting General Motors and Chrysler assembly plants, two engine facilities and a car transmissions plant. 37.4% of cars and 62.6% of trucks produced in Mexico are assembled in Saltillo. Saltillo is home to the Grupo Industrial Saltillo, a manufacturing conglomerate that makes home appliances, silverware, and auto parts. Torreón, the largest city of Coahuila, has a prominent also an iron, manufacturer and steel industry, and home to important conglomerates such as Delphi and (John Deere, Metzeler, Jhonson Controls, Takata, Caterpillar). Monclova stands out for the highest production of steel in Mexico and is seat of Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA). The state of Tamaulipas also has a maquiladora and manufacture export-oriented market, also it has an important agriculture industry; its largest city is Reynosa, closely followed by Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo, all of which are border cities, and are economically similar.Tampico is another important city and port of Tamaulipas. Foreign direct investment in Northeastern Mexico was 1,742.4 million USD for 2005. The region is, along with Northwestern Mexico, one of the fastest growing regions in Mexico.

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Wikipedia