THIS is an exciting week for the Tees Valley. Key figures from one of the world's biggest development companies have flown in to examine investment opportunities.

And Emaar Properties say they are "serious" about developing a base in an area which is ripe for transformation and desperate for jobs.

It is, of course, too early to be confident about what the end result might be. But, to use a football analogy, you can't score a goal unless you put the ball in the box.

What Ray Mallon, the Mayor of Middlesbrough, along with Trevor Arnold, of Home International, has done is put the ball in the Tees Valley box and they have our congratulations for doing so.

Just the fact that Emaar executives are here, viewing potential sites from the air and meeting business and council leaders, sends a powerful message that the Tees Valley can compete with anywhere in the world as a place to do business.

It is an opportunity not just for Middlesbrough but for the whole of the Tees Valley - for Stockton, Darlington, Hartlepool and Redcar and Cleveland - and it would be nothing short of negligence if any of those local authorities underestimated its importance.

It also has the potential to bring benefits to the whole of the North-East as it gears up for the referendum on regional government.

Today, His Excellency Mohamed Ali Alabbar, the head of Emaar and Dubai's economic development minister, joins his team on Teesside.

He is very welcome. We want him to know that he is coming to an area which has excellent development sites in place, superb communications, and a workforce with proud traditions.

He is coming to an area which, like his company, is also serious about doing business.