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Sydney city (regional capital), economy and transportation - - Pictures
Sydney is a financial and business center for New South Wales (NSW), and the broader Asia-Pacific region. In recent decades, it has replaced Melbourne as the nation's most important center for corporate headquarters and financial institutions. It also has attracted the Asia-Pacific headquarters of a number of major international companies.
Service activities—including retail and wholesale trade, health, education, the hospitality industry, and financial services—are of paramount importance to Sydney's economy. Tourism is also of major importance, especially since the boost it received during the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. In 1999, before the Olympics, about 2 million international and more than 8 million domestic tourists visited Sydney, injecting A$6.6 million into the local economy. Service industries as a whole employ more than 80 percent of the workforce, compared to the nearly 13 percent of the workforce that the manufacturing industry employs (1996-1997). Although the manufacturing industry has declined overall, Sydney continues to be one of Australia's largest manufacturing centers. In fact, three-quarters of NSW's industrial activity happens in Sydney, easily exceeding the output of industrial towns such as Newcastle and Wollongong. Metals, machinery, clothing, processed food, electronic equipment, motor vehicles, ships, and refined petroleum represent the wide range of Sydney's manufactured products. Sydney is also the nation's most active shipping port for international freight. Products such as wheat, wool, and meat are exported through Port Jackson and through the large port complex on neighboring Botany Bay.
