Meridian opens $5m plant

Meridian Medical Technologies, the US medical devices manufacturer, has opened its $5 million (€4.7 million) research and manufacturing centre and European headquarters in Belfast which employs 35 people. The 28,000 sq ft facility is designed to develop and produce technology products for its cardiopulmonary group and supply auto-injectors to international markets. "This key expansion of our research and production capabilities will allow us to more fully capitalise on the global potential of our home healthcare, tele-medicine and emergency medicine products," said Mr James Miller, Meridian's chief executive.

The opening of a £1 million (€1.6 million) extension to a new business park in Newry, along with 35 new jobs, has been welcomed as another sign of the town's prosperity. Linenhall House, the extension to the WIN Business Park at Canal Quay, was opened by Environment Minister Lord Dubs. He said the Newry and Mourne Enterprise Agency could claim much credit for creating an economic climate which encouraged greater investment. "It is impressive to see how the unemployment rate in the area has fallen over recent years," Lord Dubs said. "Although, at 9 per cent, it is still too high, there is a sense of self-confidence about the town, which is taking centre stage in the Belfast-Dublin economic corridor." The scheme involved the refurbishment of derelict buildings to provide three manufacturing units and six office suites, of more than 10,000 sq ft of workspace. A further block of 18,000 sq ft has been provided in five industrial standalone units.

A quarter of the small firms in Northern Ireland have failed to prepare for the change in telephone numbers which comes into effect in April. The "Big Number" change will affect area codes, mobiles, pagers, special rate numbers and premium rate numbers. From April 22nd, the new local code for Northern Ireland will be 028 followed by an eight-digit number with the prefix 90.

The missile systems division of the Belfast aerospace company Shorts has announced it is in the running for several major arms contracts from the British Ministry of Defence and European armed forces.

The announcement was made as Shorts Missile Systems presented a £1.6 million final assembly facility at its east Belfast plant, which is expected to create more than 30 jobs over the next three years. Northern Ireland's Economy Minister, Mr John McFall, said the facility would enable the division to compete more effectively for work on missile contracts. It recently secured the final assembly and testing contract from Lockheed Martin for the Hellfire and Longbow anti-tank missiles which are being fitted to Britain's Apache attack helicopters.