Construction firms in Northern Ireland are being called to bid for the £1 billion worth of contracts from High Speed Two Ltd (HS2).

Speaking at an event in Belfast hosted by Invest Northern Ireland in conjunction with HS2, Enterprise Minister Jonathon Bell said: "HS2 is an extremely significant investment in rail infrastructure that offers excellent supply chain prospects for local companies here and our aim is to assist these companies as much as possible to become involved with the project.

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"Northern Ireland companies have already shown, through London 2012 and Crossrail that they have the skills required to build first class infrastructure. Events such as this have previously been highly successful. Invest NI organised meet the buyer events for Crossrail which subsequently generated over £1million of orders with Northern Ireland based firms. Our manufacturing, construction and civil engineering companies have considerable expertise and a track record of delivering excellent service and products which will not only add value to the HS2 project but also help create economic benefits for the whole of Northern Ireland."

Work on Phase One of HS2, between London and Birmingham, is scheduled to start in 2017 and during construction will create up to 15,000 construction jobs and 2,200 permanent maintenance jobs.

(CD/LM)