Developments in information technology and globalised media mean that the most powerful military in the history of the world can lose a war not on the battlefield of dust and blood but on the battlefield of world opinion.

Without competition the spectacular development of technology that we have seen in the last one hundred years in this country would not have happened.

Technology should be an important ingredient. It may be and should be a tool for social development.

We are involved in technology development for you know missions that we hope to plan that would take us to an asteroid and eventually to Mars.

Further the United States is moving ahead in the development of clean coal technology. There are vast coal reserves in our country and when it is burned cleanly coal can provide a resource to supply a large amount of our energy requirements.

We are the number one economy in the world and we ought to continue to pursue those kinds of policies that ensure that we maintain that position like innovation and like technology and like education and like just research and development and discovery.

Accordingly it is our task to ensure that the Government formulates policies that foster the continued development of the IT sector while also providing for citizens' access to technology and opportunity for economic advancement.

People always underestimate the impact of technology. To give you an example: In the 1970s the frontier for offshore development was 200 meters today it is 4 000 meters.

So the major obstacle to the development of new supplies is not geology but what happens above ground: international affairs politics investment and technology.

If we attempt to block the development of new technology we effectively have ensured that the most responsible parties will not develop them.