The term "digital divide" refers to the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Industrial economies are at the threshold of potentially radical structural changes in their economic structures. Communication networks and interactive multimedia applications are providing the foundation for the transformation of existing social and economic relationships into an "information...

This statement is an initial response to the OECD Council, meeting at Ministerial level, in May 1995 to provide a policy report on the Global Information Infrastructure - Global Information Society (GII-GIS), at its meeting in May 1996.