Tianjin and Asturias are friendly associated on July, 2nd, in 1996. The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community within the kingdom of Spain, former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages. It is situated on the Spanish north coast facing the Cantabrian Sea. The most important cities are the provincial capital, Oviedo, the seaport and largest city Gij¨®n, and the industrial town of Avil¨¦s. Other towns include Mieres, Langreo (with La Felguera and Sama), Pola de Siero, Luarca, Cangas de On¨ªs, Cangas del Narcea, Grado, Lena, Laviana, El Entrego, Villaviciosa, Vegadeo, and Llanes.The principality has an area of 10£¬640km2, and a total populatino of 1,076,896£¨2006). Asturias is bordered on the east by Cantabria, on the south by Castilla y Le¨®n, on the west by Galicia (Lugo), and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea. For centuries, the backbone of the Asturian economy was agriculture, and fishing. Milk production and its derivatives was also traditional, but its big development was a byproduct of the economic expansion of the late 1960s. Nowadays, products from the dairy cooperative Central Lechera Asturiana are being commercialised all over Spain. The main regional industry in modern times, however, was coal mining and steel production: in the times of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, it was the centre of Spain's steel industry. The then state-owned ENSIDESA steel company is now part of the privatised Aceralia, now part of the ArcelorMittal Group. The industry created many jobs, which resulted in significant migration from other regions in Spain, mainly Extremadura, Andalusia and Castilla y Le¨®n. Asturias has benefited extensively since 1986 from European Union investment in roads and other essential infrastructure, though there has also been some controversy regarding how these funds are spent, for example, on miners' pensions. As of 2008, the GDP (PPP) per capita of Asturias stood at €22.640, or 90.2% of the European average of €25.100. This makes the region the 12th richest in Spain, a big decrease from the 1970s/1980s - the heyday of the Spanish mining industry, when Asturias was commonly regarded as one of the most prosperous regions in Southern Europe. Indeed Asturias has been growing below the Spanish national average since the decline of the mining industry, and grew just 0.82% in 2008, the lowest of all regions in Spain. On the plus side, unemployment in Asturias is below the average of Spain; at 8.43% it is also below the European average. The Center for the Development of Information and Communication Technologies is located in Asturias.A non-profit organization, made up of information technologies firms and the Government of the Principality, it is best known for producing The Web Accessibility Test, a free tool for the analysis of Web sites. |
