8月25日口譯文章：黃金時期停止 在華外企該怎樣辦
在北京，前去外洋度暑假的跨國公司高管正連續返回。他們多數心境愁悶，不單單是由於近幾個月一向困擾中國都城的汙染題目——在過了一個妖冶的春季以後。
正如近期返來的一位高管上周所言，眼看著本身三個女兒由於只能整天在室內運動，度假時曬得漆黑的皮膚漸漸退色，本來變淡了的發色落空光芒，感到很“可悲”。
不幸的是，這些被心煩的配頭和憋在屋內的孩子纏身的跨國公司高管也沒法享受辦公室的安靜。在這裏，要想法從增速為四分之一個世紀以來最慢的經濟中得到更多利潤，他們身負的壓力愈來愈大。
不管是發賣快速花費品照樣高級汽車，已習氣於在華收入和利潤兩位數增加的跨國公司，忽然間年增加率降到了個位數的中低區間——假如不是更糟的話。
天下大型企業結合會(Conference Board)駐北京經濟學家安德魯波爾克(Andrew Polk)說：“對付依附中國的外企來講，3%的發賣增加是基本不敷的。”
下月初，中國歐盟商會(European Union Chamber of Commerce in China)將宣布關於中國貿易情況的年度白皮書。歐盟商會主席客歲就曾宣布，外國投資者在中國的“黃金時期”停止了，使該商會成為首個表達此類概念的構造。
在它們宣布的簡報中，歐盟商會和美國商會現在都偏向於誇大中國的全部負面身分——從固執的市場壁壘，到嚴格的反把持查詢拜訪。
有人乃至以為，中國當局空前的反腐活動——和英國制藥公司葛蘭素史克(GlaxoSmithKline)因在華營業腐爛醜聞而遭遇襲擊的使人警覺的案例——並未能剎住企業貪腐風尚。
“險些沒有產生甚麽真實的轉變，”研討腐爛題目的專家尼克布蘭克(Nick Blank)和Frank Hong在比來一份依據采訪跨國公司司理成果撰寫的申報中說。“曩昔，員工會虛報用度，以便拿到現金用於行賄……現在，他們仍舊會虛報，只是本身留下了那些現金。”
但是，在這類消極氛圍中，有一個來由讓人對中國的企業遠景覺得樂觀——重要基於中國私營部分企業的創業活氣。
處於石家莊的中鼎祚輸辦事企業開元金融(Fincera)便是一個很好的例子。灰蒙蒙的石家莊是一樣乏味的河北省的省城。
建立於1994年的開元金融已成長為一家天下性的卡車租賃公司——這一行比多半其他行業更早地感遭到了經濟放緩的影響。該公司也面對著來自本地數千家從事雷同租賃營業的“伉儷店”的劇烈競爭，後者中很多其實是家庭謀劃，與地區司機幹系更好，本錢很低。如許的處境與跨國公司有些類似，後者須要與大型國有團體競爭。
然則，跟著利潤被腐蝕，開元金融的治理團隊早已覺悟。作為一家範圍較大、具有550個業務網點、年收入14億元國民幣(約合2.2億美元)的企業，開元金融具有其卡車司機客戶和小型家庭競爭敵手其實不具有的一個上風——它可以或許得到國有銀行貸款。開元金融以為，面向此類客戶開辟基於收集的融資平台，它可以賺更多的錢。
開元金融的轉型才方才開端，縱然勝利了，一家公司也沒法讓經濟蘇醒。但它為跨國公司帶來了兩點鼓動民氣的啟發。
起首，在中國存在大批此類“市場空缺”。比方，中國的私家飛機行業乃至還未開端騰飛。在一樣沒有獲得充足成長的汽車租賃業，有些跨國公司正在摸索機遇。
第二，在跨國公司不克不及湧入這些真空範疇時，富有活氣的私營企業正進入個中一些範疇發掘潛力。
跨國公司高管也應當記著，在行將舉辦的天下田徑錦標賽和懷念日本二戰屈膝投降70周年大閱兵到來以前，北京很快將實行汙染掌握辦法。是以，他們的孩子仍有機遇短暫地規復夏季的康健活氣。
【參考譯文】
Multinational executives are slowly drifting back to Beijing from their summer holidays abroad. Their mood is generally glum — and not just because of the pollution that has blighted China’s capital over recent months, after what had been a glorious spring.
As one recent returnee said last week, it felt “tragic” watching his three daughters’ tans and sun-bleached hair fade as they were forced to play indoors day after day.
Pestered by exasperated spouses and cabin-fevered children, multinational executives will unfortunately find little escape at the office. There, they are under increasing pressure to squeeze more profits from an economy growing at its slowest annual rate in a quarter-century.
Whether they are selling fast-moving consumer goods or premium cars, companies used to double-digit revenue and profit growth in China are suddenly reporting year-on-year increases in the mid to low single digits — if not worse.
“For foreign companies that depend on China, 3 per cent sales growth just doesn’t cut it,” says Andrew Polk, Beijing-based economist for the Conference Board.
Early next month, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China will release its annual white paper on business conditions. It was the first organisation to frame the zeitgeist last year, when its president proclaimed the end of what had been a “golden age” for foreign investors.
In their briefings, both the European chamber and its US counterpart now tend to accentuate the negative in China, ruing everything from persistent market barriers to heavy handed anti-monopoly investigations.
Some even believe the Chinese government’s unprecedented anti-corruption campaign — and the sobering example of GlaxoSmithKline, the UK pharmaceutical company brought low by a corruption scandal at its China operations — have failed to put an end to corporate graft.
“Little has really changed,” said two corruption experts, Nick Blank and Frank Hong, in a recent report based on interviews with security managers at multinationals. “In the past, employees would skim expense accounts in order to get cash for bribery payments...琠梔攀猀攀 days they are still skimming but keeping the cash for themselves.”
Amid such gloom, however, there is a more optimistic case to be made for China’s corporate prospects. It is one that rests principally on the entrepreneurial dynamism of the country’s private sector companies.
One case in point is Fincera, a Chinese transportation services company based in Shijiazhuang, the drab capital of an equally unglamorous province, Hebei.
Founded in 1994, Fincera grew into a nationwide truck leasing company — a business that feels the effects of economic slowdowns sooner than most. It also faced intense competition from thousands of local “mom-and-pop” leasers, many of them essentially family operations with better connections to area drivers and very low cost bases. It was a situation not unlike that encountered by multinationals that compete against large state-owned groups.
But, as Fincera watched its margins erode, its management team had an epiphany. As a relatively large business with 550 locations and annual revenues of Rmb1.4bn ($220m), the company had access to something its truck driver clients and mom-and-pop rivals did not: state bank loans. Fincera reckoned it could make more money developing web-based financing platforms for such clients.
Fincera’s reincarnation is just beginning and, even if successful, one company does not an economic revival make. But it offers two heartening lessons for multinationals.
First, there is a plethora of such market gaps in China. For example, the country has a private jet sector that has not even begun to take off. Multinational car companies are also exploring opportunities in a similarly under-developed automotive leasing industry.
Second, even when multinationals cannot rush into such vacuums themselves, many are being tapped by dynamic private companies.
Multinational executives should also remember that Beijing will soon implement pollution controls ahead of the upcoming world athletics championships and military parade for the 70th anniversary of Japan’s second world war surrender. So there is still a chance their children may briefly recapture that healthy summer glow.
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