The pressure will become even greater as other low-cost strong utilities continue to combine and form regional giants.

In the last few years, the regional giants, China and India, have sucked away manufacturing jobs.

With supermarket chains merging to create regional giants, Safeway also gets high marks for being on an acquisition spree.

Recently, as Chico has grown as a regional commercial giant, more people have been drawn to Oroville for close shopping, and lower property prices.

The deal is expected to increase the pace of bank consolidation as banking companies with national aspirations like First Union press the growing regional giants to merge.

The consortium had promised to keep the present labor force, the name (Energopetrol), and turn the company into a regional giant.

For both the region and the world, the evolving relationship between the two regional giants, Japan and China, is crucial.

Brazil, the regional giant, sells eight times as many vehicles as Venezuela.

The two regional giants had tolerated Paraguayan independence, partly because Paraguay served to check the expansionist tendencies of both opponents.

If merged, the two firms would have created a regional giant, and controlled much of Central Europe's oil industry.