Chaitoo (2000) highlighted that the most developed countries (MDCs) within the region are merely trying to catch up on the policy framework front with e-commerce issues, while the other Member States are significantly entrenched in the digital divide phenomenon vis-à-vis North America and other developed nations, see table 1. The region as a whole is deeply entrenched in the digital divide, as the distribution of Internet hosts suggests, see figure 1. Chaitoo stressed the importance of, and recommended that CARICOM Governments begin to collect data on e-commerce activities in order to inform their policy makers regarding preparations for the digital economy.