LIVE FROM CES 2015: Governments and regulators even in the most innovative countries “can do better” when it comes to driving growth, Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, said this morning.

“As excited as I am about the future, we do have to be careful. It is not pre-ordained. States, and even countries, all want to be centres of innovation. Yet they also allow old laws protecting old business models to hurt innovators, like Airbnb or Uber,” he said in an opening keynote on Tuesday.

Continuing his “can do better” theme, the executive said: “We can change our immigration laws to get and keep the best and the brightest. We can stop patent troll extortion. We can clarify invidious laws and best of all, if we can reach this dream we can ask lawyers to consider other lines of work.”

And Shapiro also addressed the issue of net neutrality, arguing that “we must encourage investment to get real competition in fast broadband”.

“What the battle over net neutrality is missing is that we need both an open internet and a huge investment in infrastructure. Our spectrum must be auctioned for broadband, but we also need unlicensed spectrum to allow the real fuel of innovation to move forward,” he said.

“Innovate or die, it really is that simple,” he continued.