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The Issues to contents list
The advent of the new economy has already produced a sizable body of literature. This paper does not attempt to discuss all the issues involved in the new economy, but aims to extract the implications for the international regulatory framework and to provide guidelines for necessary changes. It will thereby focus on the establishment of standards, on policy co-ordination and on taxation. The new economy is sometimes seen as the herald for a truly borderless world. However, since the internet requires substantial prerequisites concerning technical infrastructure and human capital, some worry that the developing countries will be left behind. The paper addresses this fear of a growing "technological apartheid" between the industrialized and the developing countries and looks at policies to overcome the digital divide.
The structure of the paper is as follows: The paper first clarifies the various catchwords of the new economy, examines the rapid growth of e?commerce and looks at the digital divide between countries. It then discusses the necessary modifications for the multilateral framework concerning the establishment of standards, the need as well as the scope for policy coordination, taxation and the overall treatment of e-commerce. Finally, the paper looks at strategies to tackle the digital gap between countries.
1.1 Catchwords and Concepts for the New Economyto contents list
Various catchwords have been coined to capture the essence of the economy- wide consequences resulting from an increased use of processed digital information and from the application of the internet for a wide array of services (software programming, webpage maintenance, ticket and ...