§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will define the terms of the performance target for his Department of securing at 143W least 250,000 UK jobs from foreign direct investment by March 2002; and what assessment he has made of the present number of UK jobs currently maintained by foreign direct investment. [83736]
§ Mr. Robin CookThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department of Trade and Industry share a Public Service Agreement target to maintain the United Kingdom as the prime location in Europe for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Figures for the number of jobs secured from FDI are recorded by the Invest in Britain Bureau (IBB), which is jointly run by the two departments. The figures, which cover both jobs safeguarded and new jobs created, are based on information provided by companies at the time of the announcement of the decision to invest and are released annually. The IBB recorded 1,057,700 jobs created or safeguarded by FDI between 1979 and 1998.