Invest Northern Ireland today claimed that it has created 1,085 new jobs in Derry and Strabane in the past year.

The government agency said this was up 70 per cent on the previous 12 month period.

According to Invest Northern Ireland, over half (53%) were the result of Invest NI’s assistance to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) businesses such as AllState, Convergys and Fujitsu.

Des Gartland (pictured above), Invest NI’s North West Regional Manager, said: “The statistics clearly demonstrate that business confidence is improving throughout the council area as companies prepare to take advantage of the steadily improving economy.

“Invest NI has been encouraging and assisting companies of all sizes, both externally and locally-owned, to invest in skills development and R&D by means of enhancing their overall competitiveness.

“The strategic focus on promoting enterprise is also providing tangible benefits particularly in terms of employment opportunities throughout the area.”

Invest NI said it has put in place processes to enable accurate reporting of the actual number of jobs created as a direct result of the projects which it has assisted.

In doing so, Invest NI said it is the first development agency in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland to report in this way across all its job support initiatives.

“We now have the ability to analyse all offers of financial support which were ‘live’ at the beginning of our Corporate Plan period (2011-12) and extracted job creation against these offers. This shows that 970 new jobs have been created in Derry-Strabane super council area in the last three years,” added Mr Gartland.

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