Wales is a small, clever country. We have people with the skills who are able to build close relationships, enabling us to cut red tape. That means we’re good at constructing networks and we can get things decided fast, which helps hugely in the highly competitive world of inward investment.

He was addressing 600 delegates attending the SPIE Europe seminar on optics and photonics, a prestigious event that attracts experts from all over the world.

Members of SPIE conduct research and apply discoveries to the design and development of a wide range of technologies, including robotics, medical imaging, biometric security, battlefield technologies, communications and astronomy.

The First Minister said devolution of power to Wales a decade ago, coupled to the country’s size helped ensure that businesses could work more closely with schools, colleges and universities.

We are rolling out our unique Technium network – a series of centres throughout Wales that provide incubation and in-house technological and business support services – which are closely linked to academic centres.

One of the jewels in the crown is Technium OpTIC located close to a cluster of opto-electronic businesses in St Asaph. This has led to the growth of a world-renowned opto-electronic expertise, such as Qioptiq Ltd which produces components for the aerospace, defence, space and commercial markets.

We look forward to an exciting future. Technium OpTIC has recently won a key contract for super hi-tech mirrors for the European Extra Large Telescope, which will search for earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars.

The Technium will be developing prototype tiles for the telescope in association with other advanced centres.

The project also opens the door for developing laser fusion facilities, a technology with real potential to help solve the world’s energy crisis.

Other leading companies in Wales include EADS in Newport and Deeside and Sony who produce professional video camera equipment in Pencoed.. Further west there is Millennium Lasers of Llandarcy, a leading European manufacturer of high quality laser systems.

There’s academic depths of involvement in Cardiff and Swansea, where there’s a dedicated Digital Technium which houses Britain’s most advanced virtual reality cave – a computer that creates three-dimensional images and projects them on to a large screen.

And Bangor University hosts a centre of excellence in industrial and commercial optoelectronics.

The First Minister said to compete effectively in this advanced technological field demanded non-stop innovation.

Knowledge and innovation are among the main priorities of the new European Convergence programmes, and around £50 million will be invested in two new Knowledge Exploitation and Technology Transfer projects.

These will help Welsh businesses benefit from innovation in our universities, turning cutting-edge ideas into commercially viable products and equipping key academic staff with commercial and innovative skills.

Optoelectronics facilitates the development of new products, high technology businesses and quality jobs – exactly the direction we intend to pursue as we develop a prosperous 21st Century nation.