The Canadian telecommunications company Nortel has announced the creation of 9,600 new jobs globally as part of its optical Internet expansion with 1,600 jobs going to its Northern Ireland operation in Monkstown near Belfast, almost doubling the plant's workforce.
The Republic is also set to benefit from Nortel's expansion although it will not be confirmed until later this year just how many jobs are going to the company's Galway plant.
The Galway operation is involved in the wireless Internet and enterprise area, expected to be the next telecommunications growth sector, a Nortel spokesman said yesterday.
Nortel, the world's number two network equipment supplier, plans to spend around $143 million (€152.39 million) of the $1.9 billion worldwide investment programme in Monkstown on building a new factory and increasing the workforce to 3,600 by the end of 2001.
Other regions to benefit from the jobs announcement are North America and Australia.
Praising the Monkstown operation, the spokesman said the plant was leading in optical expertise within the company. The expansion followed an "explosive customer demand" for its products, he added.
"Optical Internet allows telecommunication companies to deliver bandwidth hungry services [applications that require greater speed] such as video on demand and virtual reality games. This investment will further our optical leadership by doubling global optical Internet production capacity."
A spokesman for the Monkstown plant said the workforce was "over the moon" at the job announcements. "We are very optimistic. The company's confidence in its workforce here in Northern Ireland is underlined again by this expansion."
The initial announcement said that 1,300 new jobs would be created in Belfast but the figure was later revised to 1,600. The North's Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Sir Reg Empey, welcomed the announcement as "spectacular news", adding: "I think this puts Northern Ireland firmly on the global map as far as telecoms and associated issues are concerned. "I think it is something the people of Northern Ireland should be very proud and pleased about."
The SDLP's spokesman on Enterprise, Dr Alasdair McDonnell said he hoped this would be the start of many more such investments in the North.
The Alliance Party's chief whip, Mr David Ford, said he was delighted.
Meanwhile, Nortel announced second quarter results last night which were 28.5 per cent above market expectations. Nortel said its profit from operations, excluding one-time charges, rose to $561 million, from $320 million, in the year earlier quarter.
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