The Government has launched the Mid-West Action Plan for Jobs, which hopes to grow employment in the region by 10-15% over the next five years.
The plan is the fourth of eight regional jobs plans to be published as part of a new €250m regional jobs strategy.
Each plan is specific to its area and is developed and driven by the region itself, with Government facilitating and providing funding support where necessary.
The Government’s Regional Action Plan is targeting growth in key sectors such as aviation, life sciences, engineering and tourism.
Mid-West Action Plan for Jobs is targeting a 25% increase in the number of start-ups in the region.
It also aims to attract more investment into the Mid West via a 30%-40% uplift in projects to a total of 66.
This will be supported by the IDA, which – under the plan – will deliver an IDA Advance Technology Building in Limerick in 2017.
Further targets include an 85% increase in the value of agri-food exports, and the growth of overseas tourist numbers in the Mid West to 1.26m by 2025.
The Government said the regional development initiatives are born out of the success of the national Action Plan for Jobs process.
Launching the plan, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton said: “Since the crisis began the region lost almost 25,000 jobs.
"It is only in the last couple of years that the tide has been turned with more than 4,000 new jobs added in the last year alone. This fuels our strong conviction that a region with as many strengths as the Mid West can, and will, grow more jobs,” he said.
