Willem F Duisenberg: Testimony before the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament Introductory statement by Dr Willem F. Duisenberg, President of the European Central Bank, Brussels, 23 January 2002 *  *  *  Before starting my presentation, allow me, Mrs. Randzio-Plath, to congratulate you on your re-election as chairwoman of this committee.
The sharp rise in the shares of firms who make a significant part of their revenue by selling online, of those who purchase cloud-computing services and of employees with business access to the internet suggests that in the future this sector will continue to increase rapidly;  –  the integration of markets and the international fragmentation of production have given rise to so-called global value chains: for many consumer goods, each single component is sourced from the countries where it is produced most efficiently.