Speech to NESTA on innovation

20 May 2008

The Prime Minister has spoken to the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts on the importance of innovation.

Read the transcript:

Can I say what a great privilege it is to be here at the biggest ever innovation conference organised by NESTA, at a conference which is sending a message to the whole of Britain about the importance we attach to innovation in the economy, and I think a conference that is sending a message around the world that we want to be the innovation nation, not just now, but in the future.  And I want to thank Chris and Jonathan and everybody associated with NESTA, but most of all I want to thank you for your ideas, your creativity, your contribution to the whole of the British economy, and it is a real pleasure for me to be here today. 

And I know that represented here are businesses, universities, research institutes, think-tanks, academia, and people who are just like me, simply enthusiasts. 

I don't want to make a political speech today.  I am an enthusiast here, rather than simply a politician coming to speak to you today. 

Now, ladies and gentlemen, why is innovation so important, and why is it so important now? It is so important, because we are now in a global economy where the countries and the companies that develop the skills and the creativity of the people will be the most successful in this global age.  I believe the global economy will double over the next 20 years whatever the problems that we have at the moment.  I believe there will be a billion more jobs, that are skilled jobs, throughout the world.  But I believe that countries like ours will only succeed, not because we have the raw materials or the capital, but because we have the creative ideas. And that is why what you are doing is absolutely critical to the future of both the British economy and how we create prosperity for our country in the years to come. 

And why I am so interested in what you are doing, and I see the sessions this afternoon that range very widely about the sources of innovation, and what innovation can achieve.  Why I am so interested in this is I want us to break down every barrier that exists, to remove every obstacle, to get rid of anything that stands in the way of people with the creative talents, people with innovative ideas, businesses that are starting up that are innovative businesses, being the success stories of tomorrow.  So I do pledge to you that whether it is in science policy or education policy, or it is the policy towards the creative industries, or it is simply our attitude to regulation and tax in the future, that we will do our best to break down all the barriers that exist. And it is not simply innovation in science, it is innovation right across the economy, right across the private sector, right across the public sector, and I am really excited by the fact that you have got investors and entrepreneurs and creative talents all talking together about how we can finance the next stage of innovation for the future.  So I do come here as an enthusiast, and I do come here saying that we want to continue to support everything that you do and if the ideas that come out of this conference suggest we have got to do things differently, we are ready to listen, because nothing matters more for the future of our economy. You are the key to our economy, and our ability to innovate and invent and to form companies based on the creative talents of our people.

The most important thing: your creative talents, your ability to innovate, your ability to lead for the future with new ideas, for new businesses, new services, new goods.  That is the key to the British future.  I wanted to come here today and support what you are doing, and I look forward to Britain leading the world as the innovative nation of the future, and it can do so because of you.