THE MANAGING DIRECTOR of The Irish Times, Liam Kavanagh, is to take over as president of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce from today.

Kavanagh has been a council member of the business organisation, which represents over 1,300 companies in the capital, since 2007 and was, until today, its deputy vice president.

The managing director of HP Ireland, Martin Murphy, is set to be confirmed as vice president at today’s AGM.

One of the focuses of the chamber’s current initiative, Activate Dublin, is to transition Dublin businesses to online trading.

“Initially twenty companies will be equipped with the tools they need to make the transition to online trading,” Kavanagh said, with the end goal being that 40 per cent of SMEs will be selling online by the end of 2013.

“Activating Dublin has the ultimate ambition to transform Dublin from a good news story to a great news story,” said the new president.

Outgoing president, Patrick Coveney, said that it was vital that Ireland became more competitive “in terms of both attracting foreign direct investment and helping domestic businesses to prosper and grow.”

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