Liam Byrne, Minister for the West Midlands today congratulated Advantage West Midlands - the Regional Development Agency - on their performance for 2007/08.

In response to the earlier announcement from the Department of Business and Enterprise, Liam said:

"I am delighted to see that thanks to the hard work of Advantage West Midlands our region is meeting its targets. It is encouraging that this report shows how their efforts have managed to boost our economic development, and helped to create and safeguard jobs in this region.

"On the jobs and skills front alone, the figures are most impressive. The creation of 17,622 new jobs in the region, getting 6,000 people into work, as well as enhancing the skills of 21,630 across the region, is most impressive. This is great news for the West Midlands."