long - term direct investments. 2. raising finance on the foreign bond market the south african government recently made two further very successful issues in international capital markets. an issue in the samurai yen market raised the equivalent of $ 357 million for seven years, and an issue in the american yankee market provided an amount of $ 500 million for a twenty - year period. both these loans were raised at relatively attractive interest rates. the international private financial markets have developed very rapidly in recent years, and now provide for the needs of many types of borrowers. only sovereign borrowers, however, and large multinational corporations will be able to raise funds through public issues in these markets. many other types of foreign loan facilities are, however, available to other borrowers. it is known that the reserve bank is at present busy negotiating for a syndicated loan with a group of foreign banking institutions for $ 1½ billion. smaller borrowers can, of course, also negotiate loans on a bilateral basis with one of the many foreign banking institutions that provide their services in the south african markets. it is fairly easy for reputable and established south african organisations at this stage to raise foreign funds. non - residents are no longer affected by the remaining exchange controls, and accept the credibility of the south african authorities in their determination gradually to remove the remaining controls. one major constraint, however, is provided by the volatility of exchange rates, even amongst the major currencies of the world. it is not only the south african rand that showed great volatility over the past year, but also many other currencies. the exchange rate between the deutsche mark and the us dollar, for example, changed from $ 1 = 1. 54dm at the beginning of january 1997, to $ 1 = 1. 79dm today, i. e. a change of 16. 2 per cent. at this stage, the malaysian ringgit, the thai baht, the indonesian rupiah, the philippine peso and the czech koruna are all under pressure from international currency speculators. south african borrowers of foreign funds will therefore most probably prefer to cover foreign borrowings with forward exchange contracts, which will eliminate any cost advantages from lower interest rates in other countries. we nevertheless believe that it is in the interest of the south african economy to make use of foreign finance where available, as this will enable the country to maintain a higher rate of economic development. we are indeed confident that, if carefully managed, the relaxation of exchange

estonia ’ s efforts. savings and efficiency : • at least 2 % of gdp is saved due to the collective use of digital signatures. • every year, 840 years of working time is saved thanks to data exchange. • the time to establish a business has been reduced from 5 days to 18 minutes. financial indicators : • 98 % of estonian companies are established online. • 99 % of banking transactions are online. • 95 % of tax declarations are filed online – it takes only 3 minutes! e - government indicators : • 98 % of estonians have a national identity card. • over 30 000 people have applied for e - residency. • over 30 % of estonian voters from 116 countries use i - voting in estonian elections. page 6 of 10 healthcare : • 97 % of patients have countrywide - accessible digital records. • 99 % of prescriptions are digital. • there are 500 000 queries by doctors and 300 000 queries by patients every year. these are just some examples of how a small country can gain competitive advantage by embracing digital enablers that lay a foundation to rapidly move towards the digital economy. singapore another good example is singapore. singapore has adopted a smart nation policy, which means that they embrace technology in all their processes and encourage technological innovation and adoption. the monetary authority of singapore ( mas ) has identified 10 enablers to shift towards the digital economy. one of these, similar to estonia and india, is the ability of citizens to store their basic identification electronically. in singapore, this initiative is called myinfo. myinfo is a one - stop data repository that saves time in not having to capture basic information over again. it is a single online personal data platform. it includes your personal information, such as your unique identification number, name, gender, age etc. it can also include your education, employment and income information. such access enables quicker completion of digital online artefacts by using the application programming interfaces ( apis ) of myinfo. the mas has also released its industry transformation map ( itm ) for financial services. their vision is to be a leading global financial centre in asia. the itm aims to achieve real value - added growth of 4. 3 % and productivity of 2. 4 % annually in the page 7 of 10 financial sector. the itm also aims to create 3 000 new jobs in financial services and an additional 1 000 new jobs in the fintech sector annually. china digitisation has also reshaped financial services in china