Business chiefs have launched a campaign to persuade investors to look beyond the credit crunch and pump cash into Kent and Medway’s biggest regeneration scheme.

They claim that short-term financial woes should not obscure the huge potential for making money in Kent Thameside - Dartford and Gravesham, Medway and Swale - when things improve.

At this week’s Thames Gateway Forum in London Excel, they unveiled two key documents - "Thames Gateway Kent - Opportunities for Occupiers and Investors," and "Marketing the Thames Gateway to Investors."

The area is planned to have thousands more jobs over the next 20 years, but recession and economic uncertainty have held back investment decisions.

Andrew Gould, of Jones Lang LaSalle, sponsor of the first report, urged investors to disregard the economic crisis and look long-term.

"The property challenge for occupiers and investors is very different from this time a year ago and we are at the most challenging point of the current economic and property cycle," he writes in a forword.

"In the invevitable haze that accompanies times like these, it is even more important to attempt to take stock of the UK’s most important uirban regeneration challenge."

Speaking to investors, he said North Kent offered skills, easy access and cost advantages to business. It was "a very sustainable and attractive place for occupiers and a place where investors can achieve superior returns in the medium term."

Rob Bennett, chairman of the Thames Gateway Kent Partnership, urged investors to have faith in the project. "The Gateway is still national government policy and recent meetings suggest that is the view right across the parties. We gone for quality in the Gateway. We are confident the North Kent bit of the Gateway is well positioned to move forward."

Jim Brathwaite, charman of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), said at the launch of a new markting campaign and website investthamesgateway.com, that many inquiries were being received from overseas about investing in the Thames Gateway..

The falling value of the pound against the dollar had sparked huge interest from the United States. He also revealed that investment could come from Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. "It’s a long game we are playing here," he said. Anyone getting in now stood a chance of big returns when the upturn came.