is not to create a european " big brother. " in fact, the digital euro will offer unrivalled privacy in the digital space. the central bank will never be able to identify individuals on the basis of their transactions. the offline mechanism available for face - to - face payments below a certain threshold will offer cash - like privacy. and we are continuing to work on the design with the aim of maximising privacy in other use scenarios. second, the digital euro will not be programmable money. the eurosystem issues currency, not purchase vouchers. the digital euro will always be convertible 1 : 1 with other forms of money, including cash and bank account deposits. the eurosystem will not restrict the use of the digital euro by, for example, setting a period by which it needs to be used or specifying goods and services that may be purchased. third, the digital euro will not earn interest, positive or negative. it will be a means of payment, not an investment asset. fourth, the digital euro will not replace cash. we will continue working to preserve freedom of choice by ensuring that cash remains widely available and accepted. 5 / 7 bis - central bankers'speeches the european commission has published a proposal for a regulation on the legal tender of cash in the euro area. the banque de france has announced the construction of a new banknote printworks in the puy - de - dome region. the eur 250 million facility will be europe's most up - to - date, efficient and environmentally friendly banknote manufacturing centre, with commissioning due to take place in stages in 2026. the eurosystem is considering designing a new series of banknotes and recently held a public consultation on how the new notes might look. in other words, our commitment is crystal - clear : cash will continue to be widely available and accepted throughout the euro area. supporting european sovereignty and integration in payments slide 8 i now come to the second issue that prompted us to consider issuing a digital euro. digitalisation of the economy raises two major challenges for payments in europe : first, our day - to - day payments are increasingly reliant on non - european participants, such as international card schemes or, more recently, big tech companies. these players benefit from significant network effects that are unconducive to competition and that promote the formation of oligopolies. european payment solutions remain fragmented despite harmonisation efforts : some solutions work in only one country, or

“ delivered ”. how are we doing then as far as the economy is concerned? how has globalisation affected the south african economy and society? as we know, the south african economy was primarily dependent on gold and diamond mining together with agriculture for many years. many african people were driven from the land where they lived as peasants and pastoralists to the mines, emerging factories, agriculture and domestic service through the combination of political repression, land dispossession and yes, taxation. in the 1960s, the south african economy increasingly became industrialised and services oriented. of course the scourge of the colour bar in our society and the workplace was used as a major instrument to racialise everything. agriculture and mining together contributed about 20. 4 % to gross domestic product ( gdp ). in the 1990s this declined to 11. 3 %. today mining contributes about 7. 8 % and agriculture 3. 6 %. this is a major change in the structural make up of the economy. the secondary sector contributed about 27. 8 % to gdp in the 1960s. although this has declined somewhat to 24 % currently, this is nevertheless testimony that our economy remains highly industrialised. another major change in our economy occurred in the services sector. in the 1960s, this sector contributed about 51. 8 % to gdp and today it accounts for 64 %. again this is a major structural change in our economy. clearly, mining and agriculture have been the major “ losers ” in these developments. but let us not make the mistake of abandoning these sectors for we still have two - thirds of our gold in the ground and there are still many viable mineral deposits in this country and we still have to feed ourselves from agricultural activities. oh by the way : food does not come from pick ‘ n pay but from agriculture! sometimes people forget this. the structural change from mining, agriculture and some extent manufacturing to an economy heavily dominated by the services sector has major implications for the jobs market. it means that the skills required for the services sector are much higher than was the case previously. many people have made the observation that the consequences of the bantu education system are being more severely felt now than at any time in the past. there is no doubt that one of the most critical areas of focus in south africa at the moment and for the foreseeable future is education and broadly human resources development. this has to be strategic in nature. we have to focus and provide resources for training people in those areas of extreme need side