14-03-2008
Innovation 'should be encouraged'
News by Adfero for Simply Business - independent providers of public liability insurance, business finance, landlord insurance, buy-to-let mortgages & commercial mortgages.
Company insurance holders and other businesses in the UK should encourage innovation, it has been suggested.
Speaking to BBC News 24, the secretary of state for Innovation, Universities and Skills, John Denham, suggested "brain power" is needed for UK business to remain ahead in the global economy.
He said it was now crucial to "create the demand for innovative solutions and products".
Small firms should generate good ideas, according to Mr Denham, while large companies should break through the mass market and sell products and services internationally.
During the last decade, the UK's science sector bounced back from a "dangerously weak" position to the current time, when it is second only to the UK in the production of the world's best science, the secretary of state said.
"And what we are talking about today is how we take that knowledge and turn it into the innovative products and services that businesses from this country can sell around the world," he concluded.
Mr Denham's comments come after he launched a white paper entitled Innovation Nation, which includes plans for the creation of demand for innovative services and products.