423 jobs projected for Londonderry

Notwithstanding this the planned investment in the Foyle area stands at just 12.84m, which is dwarfed by the money being invested in areas east of the provinces such as South Antrim (60.19m), East Belfast (48m) and South Belfast (27.2m).

Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster revealed the details of Invest NI activity for April - September 2010 in Londonderry showing that there were 54 offers of assistance (2.21m), 423 new jobs projected, 12.84 in planned investment and 56 enterprise development programme offers.

The Minister explained: "Invest NI is the agency through which the Department of Enterprise Trade & Investment provides funding to grow the private sector in Northern Ireland.

"Invest NI's focus is to increase business productivity, the means by which wealth can be created for the benefit of the whole community.

"It does this by supporting projects that aim to create jobs, an aspect of the agency's work that is becoming increasingly important given the need to increase employment levels following the impact of the downturn, and those that promote innovation and capability development.

"Although not directly related to job creation, innovation and capability development activities are designed to increase business competitiveness which generates growth, leading eventually to improved productivity and increased employment opportunities.

The Minister also advised that Invest NI does not allocate budgets by geographic areas and that assistance patterns are demand-led by businesses which have come forward with projects suitable for Invest NI assistance.

She said the Enterprise Development Programme (formerly the Start A Business programme) is delivered in partnership with Enterprise Northern Ireland, and provides advice and guidance to individuals wishing to start a new business.

"Initial analysis of the programme found that an average of 1.13 jobs were created by those businesses that continued to trade. Further analysis found that 68 per cent of participants had proceeded to actually start a business, and 80 per cent of those were still trading. Therefore, around 875 jobs would have been created during the period under this programme," she stated.