The Industrial Development Board (IDB), Northern Ireland's leading job creation agency, is today expected to unveil record figures of more than 7,500 new jobs in the last 12 months.
The latest figures are understood to show the best year on record for the IDB and a significant increase in the number of jobs created in new inward investment projects by international companies.
In total, the report is expected to show that more than 3,000 jobs were created by inward investors in the year ending March 2001 with a large percentage of these new jobs located in designated "Targeting Social Need" areas.
This marks the final year of the development board's three-year corporate plan in which it set out ambitions to create 23,000 jobs.
According to the job creation agency, the latest results will show that it promoted more than 20,000 jobs through inward investment and expansion programmes by indigenous companies.
This is also widely expected to be the final year that the job creation agency reports as a single entity as plans are under way to merge the development board with other agencies in the North.
However, although the IDB is expected to report its most successful 12 months to date many of its client companies have also suffered heavy job losses, particularly in traditional sectors such as clothing and food industries.
Nearly 3,300 jobs have been lost in the textile sector in the 12 months to March 2001 and more than 500 have been lost in food and related sectors.
The decline of traditional sectors such as textiles to shipbuilding is seen as one of the key drivers behind the development board's pursuit of investment from ICT, telecoms and the electronics industry.
It is believed the job creation figures will show that nearly all the new jobs promoted by the IDB will have come from the high-tech manufacturing and services sectors.
Although the latest figures are likely to show record job creation, the achievements of the North's development agency continue to shadow those of the Industrial Development Authority in the South.
The IDA's latest report for 2000 shows it created more than 24,000 new jobs in 12 months in 96 inward investment projects.
