| It gives me great pleasure to come here today to perform the official opening of your new component manufacturing facility.
This Government is committed to developing a knowledge-driven economy in the UK. To continually develop new businesses and industries using new technologies and new knowledge. It is now just over three years since we produced our Competitiveness White Paper "Our Competitive Future – Building the Knowledge Driven Economy". The analysis we set out in that document is proving correct, and UK industry is moving rapidly into new knowledge-intensive industries and products. Biotechnology, opto-electronics, mobile telephony as well as aerospace and pharmaceuticals. As a major contributor to innovation and the exploitation of new technology, manufacturing is a major source of productivity growth. It plays an essential part in enabling Britain to pay its way in the world.
Optoelectronics has rapidly become one of the new wave of key technologies underpinning the Knowledge Economy in the UK. Just as electronics has revolutionised the developed world over the past 30 years, optical technologies are likely to have a similar effect over the next 20 years. It is a field in which the UK has both a world class manufacturing base, (thanks to companies like your own), and also, a world-class science base with highly respected expertise in many of our universities. Over the years, the UK can lay claim to a number of vitally important breakthroughs in this field. These include the invention of optical fibre itself, (at what is now Nortel's research centre at Harlow), the optical fibre amplifier (at the University of Southampton), and light-emitting polymers (at Cambridge University).
What makes it an enormously exciting industry is its growth prospects. The market experts suggest that the global market for optoelectronic systems and components - already worth some £40 billion - will grow to over £100 billion by the end of the decade. There will of course be some problems along the way - such as the recent recession in world telecommunications markets - but that is very strong growth in anybody's terms.
This growth is creating opportunities for UK businesses exploiting optical technology - opportunities which are being grasped by companies like Kamelian. Kamelian is a UK success story in its own right, and its success is contributing to building a strong UK competitive position in the world economy.
The Government is determined to produce the best possible environment for innovation. We need many more companies like Kamelian to take up and adapt new technologies both so that we develop many more new world-beating industries and renew established sectors.
The Government firmly believes that investment in science and technology is fundamental to our future competitiveness, with this in mind, we have substantially increased the science budget since 1998. We also have support specifically aimed at optoelectronics research and its industrial exploitation. For example, the LINK Optical Systems programme, which I launched just over a year ago, will fund some £22 million worth of industry-university collaborative projects. I am very pleased that one of these projects involves Kamelian working with Strathclyde University on developing semiconductor optical amplifiers for future optical networks.
I have been extremely impressed with the advanced work you have shown me here today. The optoelectronic components you make here are essential building blocks for the next generation of optical networks – networks that are vital to the development of e-business. I am sure that your global customers will be impressed by what you have to offer.
Kamelian is a very young company; it has existed as a company for little more than 18 months, yet it has already made great progress in turning scientific excellence into profitable innovation. That is a tremendous achievement. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you every success and open the facility formally by unveiling this plaque.
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