£8.8m investment brings 150 jobs

The majority of the jobs will be at Fujitsu's offices in Derry

IT company Fujitsu is to invest £8.8m to create 150 new jobs across Northern Ireland.

One hundred and twenty of those jobs will be in Londonderry, with the remaining 30 in Belfast.

The economy minister, Nigel Dodds, who made the announcement in Derry on Monday, said it was a "major boost" for the north west.

The company - which provides IT systems and support - already employs over 600 people in Northern Ireland.

Mr Dodds said there were many reasons the company had decided to invest further in Northern Ireland.

"The company considered several locations for this new centre of excellence but chose Northern Ireland because of the positive impact their existing operation here has on the company's global competitiveness.

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150 new jobs are being created

"They have attributed their success to our advanced telecommunications infrastructure, the highly qualified workforce, cost competitive location and the support offered by Invest NI," he said.

Mike Crow, head of application services (Northern Ireland) with Fujitsu Services said the announcement reflected the company's confidence in its Northern Ireland operations.

"This new centre of excellence will play an important role in rolling out our strategy of developing innovative delivery channels based on a global delivery model," he said.