London has the talent and lifestyle to lure investors, and businesses, away from Silicon Valley to the UK, says Ed Vaizey.
The minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries was speaking on the first day of Internet Week Europe, the London-based talkfest designed to celebrate and connect Europe's thriving internet industry and community.
"We have the talent here, and we have the lifestyle in this cultural city, that make its attractive to be in London," he said.
Top lures to the UK are Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition, the Great Britain campaign, he said.
The minister said London wasn't the sole focus on the government's tech push. "Tech City acts as a beacon, it says 'we're open for business' to attract high tech entrepreneurs and investors to the city. We're putting a lot into it, but it's not the only place to do business in the UK. That is also valid for other towns and cities around the UK."
Vaizey focused on the video games industry as an icon of British success in tech. "The UK video game industry is one of the key areas we are focused on. We've got a very successful video games industry in this country, and I hope it continues to succeed. I see it very much as part of the creative industries, and it now has so many crossovers with film, with CGI and other effects used so widely," he said.
Cloud computing and organising information was the next big thing, according to the minister, who also touched on the importance of educating children in tech. Getting kids to not just play with apps, but learn to program them, was crucial, he said briefly. He was careful not to delve too deeply into that area, as Michael Gove will cover the issue in a major speech later this month.
The minister shut down crowd suggestions that banks should be forced into a quota for loans to small start-up businesses. "It's just not possible to instruct banks to lend in that way," he said. He then went on to say that money allocated for the film industry could be shared with the software and gaming industry.
Internet Week Europe continues until Friday at The Hospital Club in Covent Garden, London.