A national information policy can be defined as a series of decisions taken by a national government which are designed to encourage a better information infrastructure. Information policy issues can be grouped into four broad areas: legislative issues, information and the economy, information and organizations, and information and social issues. Some countries (e.g. Germany, France and Japan) have explicit information policies; others, including the USA and the UK, do not. Often (as in the UK) the policy is to have no formal policy, but to leave it to the marketplace. The CEC has provided a highway (Euronet) for individual countries to offer their databases, but has not succeeded in producing a policy of Europe-wide database development, with the result that Europe still suffers from a highly fragmented information industry with many competing databases. Interestingly, several countries without clearly stated information policies – UK, Netherlands, USA – have strong information industries. This raises the question whether such a policy is needed. China is interested in developing one; since it is in the early stages of its economic development, it may be able to learn from the West's mistakes. Once its information infrastructure is in place, China must be careful to avoid over-zealous and continued intervention in sectors where it is no longer necessary.