Northern Ireland minister Barry Gardiner

Ministers have allocated almost £9 million to help secure and create 370 jobs at an aircraft plant in Belfast.

Bombardier Aerospace, Northern Ireland's largest manufacturing employer, is investing £33 million in designing and building two new business jets.

The government funding will support the projects which involve providing components being developed for new planes based on the existing Learjet 45 and Global Express jets.

"These programmes are immensely important not only for Bombardier in Northern Ireland, but also for the wider economy," said newly-appointed enterprise Northern Ireland minister Barry Gardiner.

"For Bombardier, the work means that the company in Northern Ireland will retain full design and manufacturing capability in the development of very substantial and critical aero structures, including fuselages.

"Maintaining and enhancing this capability is essential if the Belfast company is to continue to compete successfully in the international marketplace.

"I hope that everyone at the company grasps the opportunity provided by these projects to secure the company's position with the group."

Bombardier vice president Michael Ryan welcomed the funding, adding that the two projects would enable Shorts to continue providing a key service to the group.

"The work packages also help us to maintain our overall level of design and manufacturing activity and further embed our position within Bombardier as the preferred supplier of these components," he said.

"They further increase the amount of business being done with the Bombardier Aerospace group and our investment in Northern Ireland.

"We are now involved in 11 of Bombardier's 14 aircraft programmes and Bombardier has invested more than £1 billion in Northern Ireland in new product development, new facilities and training in the past 14 years.

"Bombardier is now engaged in a process of evaluating the competitive position of all its group sites."