Oxford Consulting Group, a US IT services and solutions organisation, is to create a development centre in Belfast in an investment which will create 33 jobs.
It is the first confirmed inward investment for the North this year and also the first for Belfast following sustained loyalist protests which business leaders had warned would damage the city’s image.
Michelle Kerr, president of Oxford Consulting Group, said the American firm had chosen Northern Ireland primarily because of its “talent pool” and because of the economic support that was available to inward investors.
Separately, a trade body has estimated that business has slumped by an average of 30 per cent or, in the worst cases, by as much as 55 per cent across the North’s hospitality sector because of the ongoing flag protest.
The Pubs of Ulster body says restaurants, hotels and pubs have reported a dramatic drop in trade in some towns because people are not going out at night.
