Santiago de Querétaro is the capital and largest city of the state of
Querétaro, located in central
Mexico. It is part of the
macroregion of
Bajío. It is located northwest of
Mexico City, southeast of
San Miguel de Allende and south of
San Luis Potosí. The city of Querétaro is divided into seven boroughs: Josefa Vergara y Hernández, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Centro Histórico, Cayetano Rubio,
Santa Rosa Jáuregui, Félix Osores Sotomayor and Epigmenio González. In 1996, the historic center of Querétaro was declared a World Heritage Site by
UNESCO. Querétaro has repeatedly been recognized as the metro area with the best
quality of life and as the safest city in Mexico and also as the most dynamic in
Latin America. It is a strong business and economic centre and a vigorous service city that is experiencing an ongoing social and economic revitalization. Querétaro has seen an outstanding industrial and economic development since the mid 1990s. Querétaro metropolitan area has the 2nd highest GDP per capita among Mexico's metropolitan areas with 20,000 USD after
Monterrey. The city is the fastest-growing in the country, basing its economy to IT and data centers, logistics services, aircraft manufacturing and maintenance, call centers and manufacturing center for automotive and machinery industry, chemicals and food products. The region of Querétaro has a rapidily growing vineyards agriculture and it hosts the famous wine producer from Spain:
Freixenet, the wine production in Querétaro is now the second largest in Mexico after the Baja California region. This has caused the city and the metropolitan area to attract many migrants from other parts of Mexico. Querétaro is the host for major corporations such as
Bombardier Aerospace (an airplane manufacturing facility in Mexico),
Kellogg's,
Samsung Electronics,
Daewoo,
Colgate-Palmolive,
General Electric,
Michelin,
Tetra Pak,
Siemens Mexico,
New Holland,
ArvinMeritor,
Autoliv,
TRW Automotive,
Tremec,
Valeo Sylvania,
Procter & Gamble,
Nestlé,
Pilgrim's Pride,
Santander Bank's call center for Latin America,
Mabe Mexico,
Irizar,
Scania,
Hitachi, Kostal, Aernnova,
Dana,
Dow Chemical,
Bose, Alpha Hilex,
Saint-Gobain,
Flex-N-Gate, and
ThyssenKrupp, among others.