Does E-Commerce Demand International Policy Co-ordination? The Okinawa Charter on Global Information Society Srcutinised

Andreas Freytag, PD Dr., Institute for Economic Policy, at the University of Cologne, and Stefan Mai, Dipl.-Volksw., Institute for Economic Policy, at the University of Cologne

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 1/23/2001)

The introduction of the internet to the public in 1991 marks a turning point in the way people work and live in most industrial countries. The explosive growth of the internet and other digital networks is fuelling a revolution of the way commerce is conducted. Increasingly, consumers and entrepreneurs are making use of networks and information technology to electronically design, produce, market, buy, sell and even deliver products and services throughout the world. In this respect, e-commerce is dramatically changing transactions on the markets for goods and services. Products and services can be ordered online and downloaded immediately and the location of both the seller and the buyer seems to become irrelevant. The New Economy will to be a ubiquitous economy. This has raised growing concern about the regulation of global IT activities in general and e-commerce in particular. Recently, the G8 on its summit in Okinawa has discovered the global information society as a field of activity, expressed in the Okinawa Charter on Global Information Society1 (hereafter Okinawa Charter). In line with its focus in the late 1990s, it has addressed this field from a development perspective. At first glance, this seems to make sense.