A US electronics company is to create almost 400 new jobs in Navan, Co Meath.

Pemstar Inc will locate an electronic contract manufacturing facility in the IDA Business Park in the town which is expected to lead to the creation of 390 jobs over the next three years. Electronic contracting is a term for the outsourcing of electronic component production.

Announcing the development yesterday, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey, described the decision by Pemstar as very significant: "This is an important breakthrough for the town, as Pemstar will be the first major high-tech manufacturing facility to locate on the Navan Business Park.

"As the large global ICT (information and communication technology) companies change more and more to outsourcing, they demand a high level of service from their suppliers. This demand is increasingly requiring suppliers to locate close to them," the Minister said.

Mr Dave Scheulka, international programme director for the Irish project, said that Pemstar chose the Navan location because it allowed the company to be physically close to its international customers in Dublin while enabling employees to avoid a long commute into the city.

Pemstar has operations in the US, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, the Netherlands and China. The Minister said that electronic contract manufacturing, one of the fastest growing sectors of the electronics industry, is important to Ireland to ensure that the leading electronic companies which are located here have the required levels of service and infrastructure available locally.

A Government spokesman confirmed that Pemstar would be moving into an existing 27,000 square-foot facility in the business park, which will eventually be expanded to 50,000 square-feet.