Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Commerce Department is setting up an office intended to help entrepreneurs transform ideas into companies.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said his department will help fledgling business owners get training, credit and access to government research, in a bid to encourage the “right kind” of risks by business leaders.

“The new office will be geared toward the first step in the business cycle: moving an idea from somebody’s imagination or from a research lab into a business plan,” Locke said in remarks to a conference sponsored by Inc. magazine. “What we need to do is get better at connecting the great ideas to the great company builders.”

The office for entrepreneurship and innovation will be set up under Locke’s direction, and will coordinate efforts across the government to help those starting new businesses. The Commerce Department will also establish an outside advisory panel made up of company owners, investors and officials.

The plan expands on an idea President Barack Obama outlined in comments in Troy, New York, on Sept. 21, in which he said new technologies and businesses are the key to re-establishing economic growth in the U.S. The administration will try to “catalyze breakthrough” technologies so that economic growth won’t be based on speculative bubbles, the White House economic council said in a report the same day.

“Instead of working to build a great company or discover a new invention, too many of our brightest minds were busy engineering credit-default swaps,” Locke told the conference. “As a nation, going forward, we need to encourage the right kind of risk taking.”

Solar Technology

Locke described one example of a domestic failure: U.S. researchers developed breakthroughs in solar technology, “but Japan took the lead in creating solar panels for homes and businesses, and now China has assumed dominance in the market,” he said.

Among the issues the new office will focus on is how to help new businesses get capital.

A separate group of advisers to Locke, the Manufacturing Council, proposed on Aug. 25 that the government offer $20 billion in loan guarantees to help companies that are now cut off from credit markets.

The council of 14 executives representing companies such as General Dynamics Corp. and Nucor Corp., said small manufacturers can’t get loans to fund operations or investments. The Commerce Department said it is working on ways to resolve the problem, without endorsing the loan guarantees.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 24, 2009 16:53 EDT