Broadly speaking, the goals of the decree are to:
1) Create in the shortest time possible the necessary economic, legal, technical and other conditions to permit widespread access to the Internet for all citizens, educational establishments, scientific and other institutions, governmental organizations and local governing bodies and business, 
2) Expand and improve the process by which objective political, economic, legal, ecological, scientific-technical, cultural and other information about Ukraine is placed on the internet and the means by which such information can be accessed, 
3) Ensure state support for the development of Internet infrastructure and the creation of conditions for the development of e-commerce, and 
4) Resolve issues concerning security of national information and ensuring that information, the disclosure of which is prohibited by law, is not disseminated.20

This decree demonstrates that the government of Ukraine recognizes that advances in Information Technology will contribute to the well being of its citizens.  However, the actual implementation of these ideas may be a difficult task for Ukraine.  The government faces broad issues of transparency and may not yet be ready to surrender its cloak of secrecy, a necessary step for having a broad vision for an information society.  In addition, the general business policies currently in place have been widely criticized for the following reasons:
1) Ukrainian regulations are vague and open to considerable leeway in interpretation and therefore provide ample opportunities for corruption at most government levels.
2) Ukrainian laws are ever changing; in fact when tax laws change (and they change frequently), they are changed retroactively and fines imposed by the state tax authority are the highest in the world.
3) Conducting business in Ukraine is subject to an overly complex and lengthy amount of permitting and licensing procedures and requirements.
4) There is poor enforcement of intellectual property rights.
5) The Ukraine "shadow" economy has been estimated at 60% of Ukraine's official GDP
6) Data and information can be difficult to obtain, as the government does not release information that can be potentially embarrassing to itself.
7) Monopolies continue to exist in Ukraine, although the government says they publicly support privatization efforts.

In summary, Ukraine has not yet succeeded in establishing a favorable policy climate for neither business nor the specific industry of Information Technology.21 

A historic look at IT policies can be grouped as follows:

Information Security

• The Security Service of Ukraine had responsibility for information security beginning with the 1992 "Law on the Security Service of Ukraine". While information security is not directly addressed in this law, the agency is given a broad mandate for the protection of  "government sovereignty, constitutional structure, territorial integrity, economic, scientific-technical and military potential of Ukraine" 
• The 1994 "Law on Government Secrets" assigned primary responsibility for the protection of government secrets to the Government Committee for the Defense of Government Secrets. 
• The president of Ukraine created in 1999 the Government Committee of Communication and "Informatization" of Ukraine by merging three related government agencies.  This same decree created the Government Committee of Information Policy.  This organization's specific responsibilities are outlined in the “Status of the Government Committee of Information Policy.” The committee has primary responsibility for the implementation of laws and decrees relating to information policy and reports to the Cabinet of Ministers. 

Information Content
Although the Ukrainian state government includes organizations that are responsible for providing information to the public, it has also pursued policies to restrict access to certain forms of information. Specifically, the Presidential Decree “On the Development of Spirituality, Defense of Morals, and Formation of a Healthy Way of Life for Citizens” in 1999 forbids importing violent and pornographic materials. The law does not specifically address access of this material through on-line sources. 22

Information Systems
Responsibility for management of the physical information network falls under the Government Committee of Communication and Informatics. 

IT seems to be rarely mentioned in legislation, but the implications of new technology pervade all aspects of information policy. One of the first official mentions of the Internet appears in the 1997 presidential decree "About the Decisions of the Council of National Security and Defense of Ukraine of June 17, 1997." This mentions the importance of improving government regulation of information relations.  This decree also mandated that, within a two-month time frame, the Ministry of Communication should propose a single system of government communication and that the ministry should find the most favorable terms to connect the government network within Ukraine and to the Internet itself. 

Slowly, Ukrainian legislation is beginning to act on addressing the implications of new information technologies.