Greg McCann is new Londonderry Chamber of Commerce president

Greg McCann is executive director and site head of financial services company FinTrU North West.

The political stalemate here is having an "unquestionable effect" on the local economy, according to the new president of Londonderry Chamber of Commerce.

Greg McCann has been speaking as talks aimed at breaking the deadlock were to get underway at Hillsborough castle on Monday.

He is the executive director of the financial services company FinTrU North West.

He said his key aim would be promote investment and job creation locally.

"The north west city region has amazing potential if we can harness it in the right way," Mr McCann said.

He succeeded hotelier Selina Horshi on Friday to become the 81st president of the chamber.

"There is an appetite from businesses to grow bigger, employ more people, support skills development and invest more in our local economy and we want to help them do that."

Mr McCann said the chamber would continue to press for the rebalancing of Northern Ireland's economy "in a way that benefits everyone".

In particular, they would work with Invest NI to see the implementation of their action plan in 2024 and ensure that inward investment and job creation was felt by people living in every part of this region.

The Stormont assembly has not sat since February 2022

Mr McCann said a lack of a functioning executive is having "an unquestionable effect on the local economy" and "hampering growth in many areas".

"The job of work now is to support our political leaders to find a way back to local power-sharing so that we can start to address these issues, which impact all of us." he said.