The Danish Ministry for Social Affairs has issued the Danish National Plan of Action towards minimising poverty and social exclusion. ICT is mentioned as a specific action point in this report. Another relevant policy paper driving the discussion in Denmark and outlining the action points to be taken towards minimising "the digital divide" and creating an "Information Society for All" is the report "Det Digitale Danmark ("The Digital Denmark"). Even though this document is relatively old (1999) it is still driving the ICT-discussion in Denmark.
Compared to income level, connecting fees and most hardware are affordable for most groups. However, the result of this is that focus is not on connecting technologies and hardware but instead on how to create services that actually makes a larger part of the population use the existing technologies. Focus is on creating services, training and information initiatives. There are no direct formal legislative or regulative barriers hampering the initiatives listed in the national plan of action but there are some practical problems. The initiatives are formulated at a top-political level and eGovernment services are most advanced at this level, but the public services mostly directed towards senior citizens takes place at the local (municipalities) or regional (counties) level. These local and regional institutions have a large degree of economic independence and if they are to implement the eGovernment services, referred to in the National plan of action, they require financial support from the central government and this is an eternal battle of resources. This could potentially hamper the development of the services but nonetheless most municipalities are interested in delivering e-services.
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