Regional development agency Advantage West Midlands is claiming a record year for inward investment.

It successfully assisting 32 projects which have created 2,644 jobs.

The regional figures are the highest for AWM since it was established, beating the previous record year of 1999/2000 when 2,333 jobs were created.

A total of 4,072 jobs were created and 2,144 safeguarded in the region by firms moving into or expanding from outside the region during 2004-2005. The breakdown was Coventry and Warwickshire 130 new jobs and 572 safeguarded, Birmingham and Solihull, 901 and 65, North Staffs and Stoke-on-Trent, 228 and 180, Herefordshire/Shropshire/ Worcestershire, 688 and 836, and Black Country, 2,125 and 491.

AWM chief executive John Edwards said: "While there have been some high-profile jobs losses in our region in recent times, it is important to remember that this in by no means one way traffic.

"There is intense competition within the UK to encourage foreign-owned firms to relocate in a given region and then to stay, consolidate and expand there. I am delighted that more than 4,000 new jobs were created in the last financial year and that, of those, more than half were as a result of the work of our inward investment team.

"Our region is now home to 2,300 foreign-owned enterprises employing around 250,000 people - around one in ten of the region's workforce. The launch of our regional marketing campaign - at the Heart of It All - last year should play a key role in helping us to promote the West Midlands as a diverse and vibrant place to do business. We know the West Midlands is the best place in the world to do business - now we have to make sure the rest of the world understands this as well."