Regional development agency Advantage West Midlands helped to attract 36 investments by foreign-owned companies in the past year, safeguarding more than 6,000 jobs, the organisation said.

Figures published by AWM yesterday show that for the financial year 2005-2006, a total of 4,418 jobs were created as a result of inward invest-ment and a further 8,365 safeguarded.

The agency, responsible for working overseas to promote the region and generate investment, was itself involved in deals that saw 2,534 jobs created and 3,634 safeguarded.

Among them were the expansion of UPS in Warwickshire, which created 400 jobs, the expansion of automotive supply-chain manufacturers Reiter in North Staffordshire, creating 185 jobs, and the creation of 85 jobs by leading Japanese company Fujitsu Telecommunications in Solihull.

The performance of the agency's inward investment team was the best since 1999/2000 when 2,333 jobs were created by companies moving into or expanding from the region.

AWM works to secure global investment with companies across the world and has a network of offices in the US - Chicago, Boston, Washington DC and San Jose - Japan, India, Australia, Germany, France, Sweden and Belgium.

Chief executive John Edwards said: "Inward investment is a crucial element in the economic performance of the West Midlands and I am delighted that Advantage West Midlands played a role in securing more than half of the new jobs created as a result of foreign investment.

"There is intense competition within the UK to encourage foreign-owned firms to locate in a given region and then to stay, consolidate and expand there.

"Our region is home to around 2,300 foreign-owned enterprises e mploying more than 250,000 people - around one in ten of the region's workforce.

"The success of the West Midlands is partly as a result of our on-going efforts to promote the region through our marketing campaign - titled At The Heart of It All - and is also a reflection of the global recognition of our region's acknowledged excellence in engineering and manufacturing.

"We know the West Midlands is the best place in the world to do business - it is increasingly clear the rest of the world is realising it as well."