The Regus Group, one of the world's largest serviced offices' providers, will invest more than £4 million sterling (€6.2 million) in a shared services centre in Belfast.

The centre, to be located at Clarendon Dock, will provide 295 jobs, ranging from multilingual administrative positions to senior financial posts. The jobs will be created over the next four years.

Regus, which has its headquarters in New York and London, employs 2,500 people worldwide and has a network of more than 400 business centres in 50 countries. The Clarendon Dock premises will provide administrative, accounting and operational support for the company's worldwide network.

Regus communications director Mr Stephen Jolly said the company had considered a number of sites across Europe before opting for Belfast as the location of its support centre.

"Our goal is to become the leading provider of high-quality business services to the global economy. We considered a number of possible locations across Europe for this investment but chose Northern Ireland for the unrivalled availability of well-educated and skilled people, with the motivation and dedication that is vital to the success of this kind of project," he added.

The North's Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Sir Reg Empey, described the investment as "very welcome".

"This is a strategically important project which will significantly enhance the development of the shared services sector in Northern Ireland. It is consistent with my Department's ongoing strategy of targeting high-quality projects in the contract services sector and will provide hard evidence to other potential investors of the benefits of locating this type of investment in Northern Ireland," he concluded.

Three months ago, Regus was offered almost £1.7 million sterling in government assistance towards the £4 million project.