Ambitious plans to create more than 4,000 jobs by attracting new investors to locate in west Belfast have been unveiled by Executive Ministers in the symbolic shell of the former Mackie International factory.
Sir Reg Empey, Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, and Mr Maurice Morrow, Minister of Social Development, announced the setting-up of a task force to address long-term unemployment and social deprivation in west Belfast.
The area has one of the highest rates of long-term unemployment in Northern Ireland, with around 3,500 men and 650 women currently registered as out of work.
The task force will be led by Mr Padraic White, the former managing director of the IDA Ireland and Mr John Simpson, a well respected economic specialist on Northern Ireland.
Politicians from both sides of the community have welcomed the appointment of the body.
The task force has been charged with identifying practical solutions within six months to create new jobs and shape a better future for the people of west Belfast and the Greater Shankill areas.
The Mackie factory, which sits alongside the peace line in Belfast, employed thousands of people in its heyday as one of the world's leading manufacturers of machinery for the textile industry, particularly linen manufacturers. The arrival of man-made fibres and a downturn in the international linen market spelled the end of the company.
The Northern Ireland Industrial Development Board paid £5.5 million sterling last year to acquire the 20-acre site.
