Business advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is planning to create 247 jobs in Northern Ireland by developing three new centres of excellence at its Belfast headquarters.

PwC said the largest of these will be a technology centre which will operate alongside a capability and training centre and an international survey unit.

Paul Terrington, the company’s Northern Ireland regional chairman, said he believes the new investment in its Belfast facility will help “strengthen its strategic importance within the wider firm”. Once the centres are up and running, some 80 per cent of the firm’s Northern Ireland-based consulting services will be delivered in export markets. PwC Northern Ireland, part of the UK PwC group, employs nearly 800 people. The group has been offered £1.765 million from the regional development agency Invest Northern Ireland to secure the investment project.