Microsoft is investing $24 million (£16.4 million) in its European operations centre and worldwide product group in Dublin.

The investment, which began over a year ago and is expected to be completed by December, has been mainly directed at replacing manual manufacturing facilities with offices better suited to delivering customer services to the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. It has also been used to develop Microsoft's broadband technology network throughout its 14 buildings in the Sandyford and Leopardstown campuses, and to establish two new short-order CD lines at the European operations centre.

Outlining details of the investment yesterday, Mr Michel Lacombe, president of Microsoft Europe, said that Ireland had continually proven itself excellent for quality, on-time output.

He added: "Ireland is very important to Microsoft's activities because it consolidates all the ordering, processing and distribution functions for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Last year, this represented 33 per cent of Microsoft's total revenue, amounting to $14.5 billion.".

He added that Microsoft was currently adopting a wait-and-see approach to the growing trend towards electronic commerce. He was aware of Ireland's efforts to establish itself as an e-commerce centre and it would certainly rank among the list of places Microsoft would consider for locating any such activity.

The two new CD lines cost $4 million to develop, and have generated 29 jobs, specifically engaged in the servicing of smaller orders and shorter runs. Usually Microsoft out-sources these key activities to local vendors, but in the event of requests for smaller orders it has proven more cost efficient to control the process internally. The new lines will account for between six and seven million of the 60 million CDs produced by the European operations centre and its out-sourcing partners here annually.