A factory in Co Down has announced 50 lay-offs two months after it invested £2.2 million sterling (€3.6 million) in an expansion programme backed by the Industrial Development Board. B/E Aerospace, which manufactures aircraft seats for British Airways, Cathay Pacific, KLM, and Delta Airlines, said it had "failed to secure new business opportunities from potential clients".
In a statement confirming the redundancies, it said the situation had been compounded by "the failure to secure business from several key accounts due to their implementation of a spending freeze".
In September B/E Aerospace announced a u2.2 millionmajor expansion to its Kilkeel factory where it employs 373 people in the manufacture of aircraft seating.
Known as Aircraft Furnishing until a US takeover in 1993, the firm now forms part of the Seating Products Group, an operating division of the Florida company B/E Aerospace Inc, which claims to be the world's leading manufacturer of cabin interior products.
The lay-offs are an embarrassment to the IDB, which supported the expansion with a grant of £420,000. IDB chairman Dr Alan Gillespie had described B/E as "an outward looking company" which had achieved great success in global markets, including a 260 per cent growth in exports over the past two years.
B/E said the job losses would "greatly increase the prospect of securing the maximum number of jobs for the future".
Greater co-operation is needed between the IDB in the North and its southern counterpart the IDA, according to the president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.
At the institute's annual dinner, Mr Timothy Quin called for greater co-operation on inward investment.
"We need co-operation to ensure that inward investment opportunities are not lost while there remains any part of the island where suitable skills and infrastructure are available," he said.
In addition, the Republic's capacity to absorb further significant industrial expansion had created the opportunity for a new climate of co-operation rather than competition in industrial development, he added.
"The need for new tax incentives in Northern Ireland is also urgent," he said. "With selective financial assistance being less readily available to existing investors, and with the Republic reducing its corporation tax rate to 12.5 per cent by the year 2002, not only is it difficult to attract new inward investment to Northern Ireland, but there is a very real risk that existing businesses in the North might relocate at least part of their activities to the Republic."
A call centre has been opened in Belfast by one of the UK's leading mobility companies, creating 20 jobs. The vice-chairman of the City Council's Economic Development sub-committee has welcomed Peter Thompson Wheelchairs' £250,000 investment
Mr Alasdair McDonnell said: "Over the last few years the council has been working in many spheres helping in the development of local businesses, and promoting and encouraging inward investment.
"It is very satisfying to know that two of our economic development initiatives are continuing to play a significant role in bringing tangible economic benefits to the city."
Overseas companies could be discouraged from investing in Antrim and Ballymena because of the high percentage of unqualified workers, a recent survey has suggested.
The survey, carried out in eight local council areas in the north-east, shows almost one in three workers in Antrim and Ballymena have no qualifications, compared with 27.5 per cent for Northern Ireland as a whole.
Mr Peter Rafferty, of consultants DTZ Pieda which conducted the survey, said the "no qualifications" index was important because it could influence inward investors in their choice of location. But Ballymena is regarded as a good location with sound infrastructure.
The survey also shows Ballymena has the highest number of jobs based in agriculture, almost 3,000 compared to less than 1,900 in each of the other areas.
