MORE than £390million of new investment and thousands of new jobs have been attracted to the North West in the year since the region's development agency was launched.

And highlights cited by the organisation include the investment of £3.1million to help build new business parks in East Lancashire.

The North West Development Agency has invested £2million to begin work on the development of Shuttleworth Mead at Burnley and £1.1million at the Ribble Valley Enterprise Park in Clitheroe.

Chief executive Mike Shields said it had been an important year for the organisation.

"The vision laid out in the regional strategy will only be achieved by working in partnership and a lot of the work has taken place in the first 12 months to build those relationships," said Mr Shields.

"We are now poised to enter the strategy implementation phase. With the enormous level of support and commitment across the region we can look forward to really making things happen on the ground."

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