Derry is celebrating an investment which will create up to 650 jobs there by 2001 - British Telecom plans to place the company's latest call centre in the city.
Announcing the £10 million sterling (€15.34 million) investment in Derry yesterday, the new Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, said the centre would be among the biggest and most technologically advanced operations of its type in Northern Ireland.
Mr Mandelson was delighted BT had chosen Derry. The company would provide significant employment in this area of social need, he said.
"The new call centre will also provide extensive opportunities for people to gain expertise in the latest call centre technology," he added.
The North's Industrial Development Board has offered BT selective financial assistance of £2.7 million towards investment costs. The 650 jobs will include full and part-time workers, equivalent to 542 full-time employees.
BT's chief executive, Sir Peter Bonfield, said the call centre would be among the most important in the company's network and would feature technology new to Northern Ireland.
"This will offer the flexibility to enable it to apply the latest voice and data systems to the emerging customer requirements. Flexibility is crucially important because of the dynamic business environment in which the company is now operating," he said.
Sir Peter said the company chose Derry to avail of the pool of highly motivated and adaptable people. BT employs 3,000 people in the North, half of whom are employed in call centre operations in Portadown, Co Armagh, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh and Belfast.
"We are confident that people here possess the qualities the company requires to develop a call centre which can be benchmarked against the most efficient global customers service business," he added.
Meanwhile, the company has also formally announced the appointment of a new chief executive for BT Northern Ireland. Mr Hanif Lalani (37), is also deputy chairman of BT's Ocean joint venture with the ESB.
Mr Lalani has worked for BT for 15 years and joined the Northern Ireland division in 1998 as finance director.
