Ladies and gentlemen,

"Let a thousand flowers bloom" - the theme of the conference we are starting today

is not just a blooming idea of strawberry fields forever but it is a field of creativity and different initiatives that emerge in different kind of businesses, different kind of flowers, for the prosperity of society.

It is a vision of planting seeds for the future, seeds that will flourish into businesses. Iceland needs flourishing businesses. Iceland has built an impressive infrastructure for new businesses. It is time now to utilise that infrastructure for future prosperity!

Competitiveness, dear delegates, is the holy grail of a successful industrial society. When Michael E. Porter, the distinguished inventor of how to measure competitiveness visited Iceland about a year ago he reminded us thoroughly about how much work there was needed in order to maintain a good position in the competitive world we live in.

As Porter reminded us, only private enterprises can create real profits; the state can harness from its resources; but the enterprises are there to turn the resources into profit and wealth for individuals and the public at large. It was also interesting to be reminded that all businesses can be high-tech and that that no sectors of industry should abandoned - much rather society should strive to build knowledge about them, and into them, and thus increase their productivity and ability to compete.

Innovation and development are at the forefront of a nation’s arsenal to compete. In the measurements taken so far, Iceland scores somewhere around average, with some exceptions of very high position. Given the fact that innovation is the seeding process of economic prosperity, it has been my vision to strengthen the environment that our companies are living in. This is the cooperation of universities, our important institutions like the newly established Innovation Center and many more. The educational system needs to provide human capital to fulfil he needs of the many aspects of a modern industrial society.

The government of Iceland is certainly emphasizing innovation - this can be seen from our contribution to science and innovation funding and not the least from the fact that after the latest decision of the present government corporate taxation of income must be among the lowest seen on the planet.

Ladies and gentlemen; Nations of the world are not born with the silver spoon of competitiveness in their mouth! But the environment created for their corporations in order to prosper is the key to their well being. We often see nations excel in areas where foresight, flexibility and competition is the fertile soil they thrive in. History also reminds us steadily that a nation´s competitiveness is not at all founded solely on available natural resources. Success is sometimes based on governmental initiatives; sometimes – and more often – with the entrepreneurs and their actions. My sole point is the importance of creating the right environment to exist in. It is my role as the minister responsible among other things for innovation and industry – to strive to achieve that.

Examples from around the globe teach us that if innovation is neglected – society becomes more single-track, more one-sided, and the whole of society becomes more vulnerable to fluctuations. At the bottom of an economic system trapped in no-innovation, we see an increase in low paid jobs which in the end leads to suffering of the regions around the country and a general lack of well- being.

A good company is like a tree that reaches out for the sky, blooms and yields flowers and fruits. The seeds of a good company need to have been based on good and solid ideas and the capital needed to nourish it acts like the rain to the tree in the field.

There is ample experience to make us worry a little bit about the financial bridging of a good idea in it’s path from a seed to a tree. We sometimes talk about the innovation gap or rather canyon, a sort of geological divide that separates a good idea and innovation from realization. A forum like the one we are experiencing today is exactly a meeting at the canyon’s bottom. It is like a meeting of bridge-builders assessing how to make a bridge to a brighter future.

Then there is the sort of a culture difference between the innovators and inventors on one hand and the owners and managers of capital on the other. They do not always talk the same language! To coin a phrase I could say that it probably has something to do with inventors being from Venus and financers from Mars!

Looking to the future is always exciting. A venue like the one we share today is an excellent opportunity to embark upon a journey that we do not know where will take us. First impressions can be vital. Will the investor be charmed by the concept, the presented package and the glowing enthusiasm of the innovator?.

Within the next hour or so, seven representatives of innovative companies will have seven minutes to introduce to investors a variety of business opportunities – only time will decide if the seven minutes will lead to a seventh heaven for a given idea!

Another aspect of the seed forum is that it gives Icelandic companies the opportunity to get in touch with investors all over the world. We have seen a lot of successful introductions of Icelandic ideas all around the globe and I emphasise that this forum can be extremely important for Icelandic companies to invite a foreign partner into a mating dance – for a prosperous future. In a small society like ours, opening the window to the world when reaching out with a new idea, concept or business opportunity, is vital.

Innovative companies need a solid financing environment when they cross the canyon. The Icelandic finance environment has seen enormous development in the past half a decade or so – almost a paradigm shift. In spite of temporary difficulties, some of which are outside our reach – the Icelandic banking system has really flourished. Banks, official development funds and risk capital funds, all have added to the bridge-building of new businesses.

On the journey the government of course plays a vital role – but I must emphasize and I want to challenge the investors to view innovation from a new perspective. Perhaps now there is the time for a new system of value-assessment. We have to be prepared to see our economy flourish in a new way where real value addition replaces fictive values often seen in the former years when paper value changed owners in a conveyor belt of shuffling paper!.

I am certainly happy to see the work of KLAK – the private innovation hub – who are preparing a network to link innovators to investors, and I complement them on their achievements.

To you, business angels, gathering with us today I just want to say: I´m very happy to see you. Come with us today and fly across that canyon that is mostly in our minds! Build with us bridges to a new prosperous future where we have created a lasting value for our future. Then – to quote the Beatles - our strawberry fields will bloom in the arctic spring –

and having said that I formally declare open this important event!