AS a region, we are constantly presented with challenges that we must overcome.

For the North-East, there has been a great many barriers to achievement and a number of significant setbacks to our economy.

I speak principally of the well-documented changes wrought as we progressed from heavy industry to our current smaller enterprise-dominated economy.

What is a great testament and credit to our region is the manner in which we have taken the hard times and toiled to turn them to good. This may seem a flippant statement in light of the rankings we are so regularly presented with that show us supposedly languishing at the foot of tables, which are perennially headed by the economic powerhouses of London and the South-East.

However, if you were to plot a graph of employment, inward migration, business start-ups and business growth over the past two decades, it would show that despite a substantial drop during troubled times, we have moved up the graph to our highest ever point.

The very fact that transport is now dominating the local agenda is indicative of the increasing levels of car ownership brought about by greater wealth in people's pockets. One of our biggest failings is our ability to recognise and shout about the successes that are improving the North-East because we continually benchmark against areas we cannot expect to beat. This was an issue highlighted to me at an event I attended last week. The Esh Group, my previous employer, was the lead contractor and project manager for a self-build project with the Tyneside Cyrenians, which works with the homeless and the vulnerable.

One of the people being helped by the Cyrenians to construct The Garden Rooms, also known as Elliot House Self-Build, was a 38-year-old man named Stuart, who spoke passionately about the positive impact the project had had on his life. He was first sent to prison at the age of 16 and, until the Tyneside Cyrenians had such a positive impact on his life, he had not been out of jail for more than six months.

Out of adversity, Stuart has turned his life around.

He struggled to find a productive role in society and was perceived as a failure. He has now, with the help of others, found himself and discovered a new self-confidence.

As he forged ahead successfully, he left his past behind him. So have we all.

* James Ramsbotham is chief executive of the North-East Chamber of Commerce.