With the election just a month away, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has reminded candidates of a key responsibility a U.S. leader must fulfill to keep America on top of the world – focus on advancing innovation.
“As the U.S. presidential candidates lay out competing visions for the country, I have been thinking about a topic they have not yet discussed in detail: what political leadership can do to accelerate innovation,” he wrote.
Innovation, he argued in a blog on Gates Notes, is the reason human lives have improved over the last century.
“The most successful economies are driven by innovative industries that evolve to meet the needs of a changing world. From the advances that put a computer on every desk to the discoveries that led to lifesaving vaccines, major innovations are the result of both government investments in basic research and the private-sector creativity and investments that turn them into transformative products.”
Gates’ words hold significance as this year’s campaigns for Novmber 8 election – pitching Democratic Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump – has been dealing with a host of issues with very few of them getting the focus necessry for informed debate.
But in his blog, Gates, one of the most successful entrepreneurs, argued strongly that innovation starts with government support for the research labs and universities working on new insights that entrepreneurs can turn into companies that change the world. “The public sector’s investments unlock the private sector’s ingenuity.”
“Accelerating innovation requires both political leadership and private sector leadership. As U.S. voters decide which candidates they want to elect to fill national, state, and local offices, and as many countries around the world undergo similar political transitions, I think we should consider what kind of leaders can drive the innovations we need.”
“When we innovate, we create millions of jobs, we build the companies that lead the world, we are healthier, and we make our lives more productive. And these benefits transcend borders, powering improvements in lives around the world. Our global culture of innovation has been most successful at those moments when science, technology, and great leadership come together to create miracles that improve modern life. I believe we are in one of those moments.”
Gates also outlined four objectives which the United States must prioritize:
Provide everyone on earth with affordable energy without contributing to climate change.
Develop a vaccine for HIV and a cure for neurodegenerative diseases.
Protect the world from future health epidemics, which might be more infectious than Ebola and more deadly than Zika.
Give every student and teacher new tools so all students get a world-class education.
“I hope our leaders seize these world-changing opportunities by investing in great research institutions, which translate into big opportunities for innovators.
“When these ideas help shape a future that is healthier, more productive, and more powerful, it will be because world leaders stepped up to do the urgent and the important at the same time.”
