The north-west will need to create an additional 8,000 new jobs over the next five years in order to realise its economic potential, the chairman of Intertrade Ireland, the cross-Border trade initiative, has warned.

Mr Martin Naughton believes significant investment in both the region's human resources and its physical infrastructure is urgently needed in order to reposition the north-west for the future.

"Our remit in Intertrade Ireland is to increase trade between the North and the South, and to encourage them to come together economically.

"The Border between the North and South is purely a political border - it is not an economic border and one of the measures that would help the two economies to grow together is an improved infrastructure," Mr Naughton said.

He believes there is strong support for a radical new approach to address issues such as infrastructure and training in the north-west.

Mr Naughton said the formation of new lobby groups such as the North West Chambers of Commerce Initiative, a new cross-Border body formed by the Derry, Strabane, Gweedore, Letterkenny and Limavady chambers, shows that people on the ground now want to make a difference.

"We need to increase links between the two jurisdictions in Northern Ireland and the Republic. This will not only help the government agencies charged with economic development be more effective because if we don't urgently sort out shortcomings such as infrastructure then we risk losing investment and jobs in the future," Mr Naughton added.

Mr Alan McClure, chairman of the North West Chambers of Commerce Initiative and chairman of the Derry Chamber of Commerce, said the region had the highest rate of unemployment in Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Mr McClure, who is also chairman of Perfecseal, the American packaging group that recently invested £8.4 million sterling (€13.6 million) in a new research and development facility in Derry, said it was imperative that the region attracted new investors.

He plans to use the return visit to Derry next week by Mr Bill Clinton, the first US president to visit the city, as an opportunity to highlight what the city has to offer.

"We will be updating him on the current economic climate and we will certainly be selling the region as an investment location, particularly for North American investors," he said.

Sinn Fein's vice-president, Mr Pat Doherty, has also issued a call for a cross-Border economic development strategy to address the issue of "under-investment" in the area.

Mr Doherty addressed a cross-Border business conference in Sligo yesterday where he told business people from Border counties that the area must not be "marginalised" by economic development in other regions.