Wayne Allard: “During the 105th Session of Congress, my colleagues and I are addressing a broad range of high tech issues, including…”

“During the 105th Session of Congress, my colleagues and I are addressing a broad range of high tech issues, including military, civilian, and commercial space issues. The industry supporting high technology products and services has become extremely important to our nation, and particularly in my home state of Colorado. Today I would like to take a look at the high-tech industry through global, national, state, and local perspectives, and relate the broader examples to Colorado. Colorado is a microcosm of the nation when you look at high-tech and the future of the industry. The prosperity, trends, and needs within the Colorado community are prime examples of what the entire nation is faced with. The growth-inducing power of technology at the industry level has been astonishing. In the United States, research-intensive industries, such as aerospace, chemicals, communications, computers, pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments, semiconductors, and software- have been growing approximately twice the rate of the U.S. economy as a whole the past two decades. The high-tech world has also become extremely competitive. High-tech firms are now facing global competition, regional competition, and competition for jobs. There is every reason to believe that this trend will continue for at least the next decade. As competition increases locally and globally, we must field an educated workforce that can also be competitive.”