OBERPFALZ - Economy
Regensburg is an economic centre in which both the manufacturing industry and the services sector are of importance. The Regensburg area has become much more attractive to industry over the past few years. For example, BMW and a number of supply firms have given a boost to the economy and created several thousand new jobs. The central part of Upper Palatinate is also heavily industrialised. During the 1980s, a nuclear reprocessing plant was planned for the area (in Wackersdorf), but after the project had been shelved a number of SMEs and subsidiaries of large firms moved in.
In the central part of Upper Palatinate, electrical and precision engineering and optics are particularly prominent, though there is also some mechanical engineering and vehicle construction. In the north of the region, traditional branches of industry tend to dominate, and it is here that can be found one of the centres of the Bavarian glass and fine ceramics industry.
Regensburg, which is situated at the end of the navigable stretch of the Danube, handled around two million tonnes of goods in 1989, making it by far the largest inland port in Bavaria. The opening-up of markets in southeast Europe and the completion of the Rhine-Main-Danube canal means that high growth rates may be expected to continue in this region.
Differing economic potential in Upper Palatinate
Compared with the industrialised areas of Regensburg and the central and northern parts of Upper Palatinate, the rural districts of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz and Cham (in the Upper Palatinate forest) are rural .and sparsely populated. The district of Cham is not only on the border but also lacks a developed transport infrastructure.
Tourism has become increasingly important, especially in the Upper Palatinate forest, the parts of the Upper Palatinate belonging to the Bavarian forest, the Fichtelgebirge and the lower Altmühltal.
The Cham rural district heads the list of overnight stays for Upper Palatinate with a total of more than two million per year. Tourism has also provided an extra source of income for the inhabitants of the rural districts of Neustadt an der Waldnaab, Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz and Schwandorf.
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