The U.S. government needs to support innovative business that can rebuild the country's economy on a stronger basis, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said Monday.

"To rebuild our economy, we can't rely on the same debt-fueled economic schemes that failed catastrophically in 2008," Locke said in his address to the first meeting of Innovation Advisory Board at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia, a Washington suburb.

"Instead, we need to grow innovative businesses that create jobs and long-lasting economic value."

Locke noted that U.S. national job growth in the 2000s was the lowest of any decade stretching back to the 1940s.

He said that the government needs to find out what it is doing right to unleash entrepreneurial talent and what it can do better to enable America to win the future.

The aim of the Innovation Advisory Board, which was created by the Congress in January, is to find policy recommendation for the Obama administration to strengthen the country's global competitiveness and create jobs.

The 15-membered board will build upon the early work and findings of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and Startup America to produce a report by January 2012 assessing America's capacity for innovation and global economic competitiveness.

The study will analyze all facets of the economy impacted by national policy, including trade and exports, education, research and development, immigration, technology commercialization, intellectual property and tax policy.

In the 2011 State of the Union address in January, U.S. President Barack Obama made a commitment to "winning the future by out innovating the rest of the world."

(Source: Xinhua)