Government agency Invest NI said it supported the creation of nearly 4,000 jobs in its 2023/24 financial year.
It offered £93 million of support to companies to help them with projects to develop new products, invest in energy and resource efficient technologies, improve skills, create jobs and export to new markets.
This, in turn, has led to £519 million being invested in the region’s economy.
And in a move to answer criticism that the agency is too Belfast-centric, its report said 76% of companies supported were outside Belfast while 93% of offers were made to locally-owned businesses.
The report is the first under the tenure of Invest NI chief executive Kieran Donoghue, who took on the role last October after being global head of strategy, public policy & international financial services at the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), Invest NI’s counterpart in the Republic.
He said: “Every day, we work with businesses, from local entrepreneurs starting their journey to multi-nationals making large-scale investments.
“Regardless of the company’s size or stage of development we provide high-quality services, programmes, support, and expert advice.
“In 2023/24 our financial assistance included over 1,400 offers to companies alongside 145 investments and loans provided through our suite of Access to Finance funds.
“Combined, this support equates to £93m of assistance to businesses to help them with their growth plans.”
He added: “Both our support, and the companies’ investments will deliver over half a billion of investment in the Northern Ireland economy.
“Around 40% of our work with businesses is practical advice, guidance, and sharing technical knowledge, not financial assistance.
“For example, our free business resource www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk had 2.6 million visits in 2023/24, providing businesses access to information guides and fact sheets.”
The Invest NI report showed that15 companies chose to locate in the north for the first time during the financial year.
These included Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, which created 200 jobs at a manufacturing facility in Campsie, outside Derry, and New York fintech company DailyPay, which brought more than 200 mainly hybrid jobs in its first investment outside the US.
Coinciding with the Invest NI report, IDA Ireland published mid-year results for 2024 which showed that in the first six months of this year it supported 131 investments, 74 of which are planned for regional locations, enabling the future delivery of 8,900 jobs to the Republic’s economy.