Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s largest providers of financial services, today announced plans to invest $65 million at its Smithfield, R.I., regional campus to construct a new building which will house at least 1,000 employees by 2008.

“Today’s announcement represents the next step in our long-term development plan for the Smithfield campus that we began a decade ago,” said David C. Weinstein, Fidelity Executive Vice President of Government Relations. “We will invest $65 million to build this new, state-of-the-art office space – but the real value will be inside: our employees who work there. This highly-educated workforce, campus setting, and recent efforts by the Legislature and the Governor to make Rhode Island’s tax structure more competitive all contributed to this decision.”

The building will be the third constructed on Fidelity’s 380-acre Smithfield site since 1998. Fidelity’s original master plan for the campus, approved in 1995, allows for the construction of up to five buildings. Today, Fidelity’s Smithfield operations employ more than 1,600 people.

The major Fidelity business operations currently located on the site include the headquarters for Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company, which provides investment management services through advisors at financial institutions nationwide; Fidelity Operations & Services Group, which provides securities execution, clearance, and information management services to Fidelity’s retail, institutional, and correspondent brokerage clients; and Fidelity Investments Systems Company’s development division, which delivers world-class global applications, solutions, products and services that give Fidelity businesses a competitive technology edge.

Fidelity expects construction of the new building to begin in early 2006, with completion expected in 2008. The new building will be comparable in size to Fidelity’s existing two buildings on the campus, which are roughly 275,000 square feet.

Smithfield is one of Fidelity’s nine regional sites across the country. In addition to its Boston Headquarters, Fidelity has regional sites in the following locations: Covington, Ky.; Jersey City, N.J.; Marlborough, Mass.; Smithfield, R.I.; Merrimack, N.H.; New York City, N.Y.; Raleigh, N.C.; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Westlake, Texas.