TECHNOLOGY companies will outnumber traditional industries in the region at an awards ceremony this year.

Technology companies make up 26.5 per cent of the region's entries in the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, organised by accountancy firm Ernst and Young.

The second biggest sector represented is business support services, with 23.5 per cent of the entries.

But manufacturing, the traditional mainstay of the Northern economy, accounts for only 17.5 per cent of entrants.

Joanna Robson, entrepreneurial growth markets leader for Ernst and Young in Yorkshire, said: "The Entrepreneur of the Year Awards are a fairly good barometer of what is happening in business in the region.

"It is significant that those technology companies that were set up in the mid-to-late 1990s are now coming of age.

"This is no bad thing, because as more traditional industries in manufacturing decline, or are outsourced overseas, it is important that new companies offering skilled, quality jobs move in to fill the gap."

Regional winners will be announced at a ceremony in Leeds Town Hall next Tuesday.