印度错失吸引外资良机
India misses opportunity to secure foreign investments
英国《金融时报》 汉妮•桑德尔 报道
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最大 较大 默认 较小 最小 背景

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Two years ago, when the world was in love with emerging markets, India could have attracted much of the capital it desperately needed to get its infrastructure act together. With interest rates low, debt capital was cheap and equity investors were desperate for the higher returns available in the faster growth countries of Asia.
两年前，当世界爱上新兴市场时，印度本可以吸引大量资金，用作完善其基础设施亟需的经费。当时由于利率较低，债务成本低廉，而股票投资者也渴望从高增长的亚洲国家获取较高的投资回报。

Today, it is too late – at least for the time being. The cost of capital is going up and most investors are in risk-averse mode.
如今已经为时太晚，至少就眼下来说。资金成本日趋上升，多数投资者抱着厌恶风险的心态。

Since India has a current account deficit, it has to attract capital from the rest of the world. But banks are going to be less generous with their lending as a result of more onerous capital requirements. Issuers in the bond markets are finding that their borrowing costs have risen.
由于印度的经常项目处于逆差状态，所以它必须从世界其他地区吸引资金。然而，由于资本要求提高，银行在放贷方面会变得不那么慷慨。债券市场的发行主体则发现，借贷成本上升了。

In a globalised world, companies and countries whose cost of capital is on the rise will be at a competitive disadvantage compared with those that have a relatively lower cost of capital.
在一个全球化的时代，资金成本日趋上升的企业和国家，与资金成本相对低廉的企业和国家相比，处于竞争劣势。

That can only mean the gap between capital-scarce India and flush China will continue to get bigger.
这只能意味着，资金匮乏的印度与资金充沛的中国之间的差距将继续拉大。

Net foreign direct investment in India in 2010 plummeted 44 per cent year on year to $11bn, with the drop especially pronounced for vital infrastructure projects, where inflows almost halved compared with the two previous years, according to data from Morgan Stanley.
根据摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)的数据，2010年印度外来直接投资(FDI)净额比上年锐减44%，达110亿美元。下降势头尤其明显的是重要基础设施项目，此类项目吸引的FDI金额与前两年相比减少了近一半。

Both foreign and local business sentiment have turned extremely bearish on India as a result of government drift and corruption and the hassles of dealing with inadequate power, transportation bottlenecks, routine flooding in cities with insufficient drainage and intermittent water supply.
由于政府无所作为和腐败盛行，加上存在电力不足、运输瓶颈、城市因排水设施不足而时常内涝以及供水经常中断等难以解决的问题，国内外企业对印度的看法都变得极其悲观。

The country “is now becoming the land of scams”, says one senior Indian banker. “The amounts involved are frightening.”
印度一位资深银行家表示，这个国家“如今正变成骗子的天地”，“涉及的金额惊人”。

Some of India’s most successful businessmen such as Mukesh Ambani plan to invest more outside India than inside in coming years. South-east Asia, especially natural resource-rich Indonesia, is full of Indians who prefer to deal with governments other than their own.
印度一些最成功的商人，如穆凯什•安巴尼(Mukesh Ambani)，未来数年计划在海外进行的投资，多于计划在国内进行的投资。东南亚四处可见印度人，尤其是在自然资源丰富的印尼。相比之下，他们宁可与别国政府打交道，也不愿与本国政府打交道。

Better to ship coal to India from Sumatra or Kalimantan in Indonesia than dig it up from mines in Bihar and transport it across the country.
从印尼苏门答腊岛或加里曼丹运载煤炭到印度，胜过在比哈尔邦挖矿然后运到全国各地。

A joint venture between Indian property developer Unitech Group and NCC, a Blackstone-invested Indian infrastructure company that has been locked in a bitter dispute with the National Highways Authority of India for years, demonstrates the difficulties India faces in attracting the resources it so badly needs to build roads, generate power and provide water.
印度地产开发商Unitech Group与NCC的合资公司表明了印度在吸引投资上面临的困难，而这个国家亟需资金用来建设公路、供电和供水设施。NCC是一家获百仕通(Blackstone)投资的印度基建公司，其苦陷与印度国家公路局(National Highways Authority of India)的纠纷长达数年。

The dispute involves tens of millions of dollars of payment which the joint venture alleges it is owed for work completed on a highway in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
这起纠纷涉及数千万美元资金，该合资公司声称，其应从安得拉邦一个高速公路项目中获得的工程款遭到了拖欠。

The project was finished in April 2005, nearly four years after work began.
该项目历时近4年，于2005年4月竣工。

Unitech and NCC are among many companies that have allegedly not been paid for work the NHAI commissioned, according to people familiar with the matter.
据知情人士透露，不少承建公路局项目的公司据说都没拿到钱，Unitech和NCC只是其中一例。

Some private sector executives estimate that the NHAI owes more than $2bn in total claims.
一些私营高管估计，国家公路局遭到索要的欠款超过20亿美元。

“We will go through the judicial procedure,” said J.N. Singh, a member of the finance division of the NHAI. “They [Unitech-NCC] have certain claims from their side but we also have our side.”
印度国家公路局财务部的J•N•辛格(J.N. Singh)表示：“我们将通过司法程序来解决问题，他们（Unitech-NCC）有他们的诉求，而我们也有我们的主张。”

Mr Singh dismissed the $2bn figure as “rubbish”.
他驳斥20亿美元之说是“无稽之谈”。

Executives at the private equity arm of IDFC, an infrastructure funding firm, say they have many companies facing endless delays in getting paid for work they have done for the highways authority and other government agencies. Power companies also complain of not being paid.
基建项目融资公司IDFC旗下私募部门的高管表示，他们有许多公司为公路局及其他政府机构承建工程后，相关款项遭到了无限期的拖延。一些电力公司也抱怨拿不到钱。

Meanwhile, at a recent conference in New York, one senior official of the US-India Business Council referred to the hesitancy of foreign companies to become involved in putting money or resources in India because of the difficulty in getting paid and the equally challenging task of getting redress from the courts.
与此同时，在近期于纽约举行的一次会议上，美印商会(US-India Business Council)的一位高级官员谈到，由于收款困难，加上通过法庭获得补偿也同样艰巨，外国公司对于在印度投入资金或物力之事显得迟疑不决。

So far, NCC and Unitech have won their dispute at every level to which it has been referred, including a review by an independent engineer at the project level, the Dispute Review Board and an arbitration proceeding in Delhi.
迄今为止，NCC和Unitech在这起纠纷中的每一个相关环节都取得了胜利，包括一位独立工程师对项目的评估，争端审议委员会(Dispute Review Board)的评估，以及在新德里的仲裁。

Despite these setbacks, NHAI has lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court which has yet to schedule its first hearing on the case, people familiar with the matter say.
据知情人士透露，尽管屡次受挫，印度国家公路局还是向高等法院提出了上诉，目前高院尚未确定此案首场听证会的日期。

To many observers, such interminable legal procedures and the Indian court system generally resemble the famous legal case that goes on for decades in Charles Dickens’ novel Bleak House.
在许多观察家看来，如此旷日持久的司法程序和印度法院体系堪比查尔斯•狄更斯(Charles Dickens)小说《荒凉山庄》(Bleak House)中那起持续数十年的著名官司。

The problem is that the rest of the world is not on traditional Indian time – and neither is an increasing part of the Indian population.
问题是，世界其他地区并不与印度的传统节奏同步，而越来越多的印度人也在偏离这一节奏。


译者/何黎