2023考研英語閱讀投資埃塞俄比亞

　　Investing in Ethiopia;Frontier mentality

　　投資埃塞俄比亞; 前沿思維;

　　A new fund attests to the country s allureand tothe value of connections;

　　新投資，國家吸引力與關系網價值的有力證明;

　　Long benighted, Ethiopia is attracting attention for abetter reason. It has become Africa sfastest-growing non-energy economy .Investors have noticed. South Africa s largestconsumer-foods firm, Tiger Brands, expanded into Ethiopia last year with a big acquisition.Diageo and Heineken recently paid nearly $400m combined to acquire state breweries in thecountry.

　　埃塞俄比亞已經成為非洲經濟增長最快的無能源國家。這一點，投資者早就知道。西非最大的消費食品公司，Tiger Brands,在去年進行了一次大規模并購，進軍到埃塞俄比亞。Diageo和Heineken最近聯合花費4億美金收購了該國一個國營啤酒廠。

　　The latest proof came on May 9th, when Schulze Global Investments, an Americaninvestment firm and family office, announced that it had launched a $100m Ethiopia fund,the first private-equity fund focused exclusively on the country. Anchored by at least $15mfrom Britain s CDC, a government-owned provider of development finance, and $10m of thefamily s own money, the fund will invest in sectors from agribusiness and cement to healthcare and natural resources.

　　最新事件發生在5月9日，美國一家投資投資與家族財務管理公司，Schulze全球投資公司，宣布在埃塞俄比亞投資1億美金，這是第一筆專門針對埃塞俄比亞的私募基金。加上之前英國 CDC公司，一家政府所有的發展財務公司的至少1500萬美元投資，還有家族所有的1000萬美元，這些資金將用于農業企業、水泥、衛生保健和自然資源。

　　Investing in Ethiopia is not for the faint-hearted, however. With a projected national incomeof $38.5 billion this year, its population of 85m still ranks among the world s poorest. Thegovernment s big spending carries risks, including high inflation and heavy state borrowing that has shrunk the credit available to privatefirms. Much more borrowing and spending is planned, and needed. The heart of the Ethiopiancapital may be traversed by new concrete arteries and bridges, built by Italian and Chinesecontractors with Chinese loans. But the rest of Addis Ababa is a patchwork of dirt paths linedby corrugated-tin dwellings that are the capital s shantytowns and slums.

　　然而，投資埃塞俄比亞可不是為了慈善。雖然埃塞俄比亞今年國民收入為 385億美元，但按該國8500萬人口計算，它仍然位居世界最貧困國家之列。政府大幅消費帶來了危機，包括高通脹。巨額的國家借債已讓國家信譽對私人企業縮水。更多的借債和花費都在必要的計劃之中。從中國借錢、由意大利和中國建筑商建造的交通動脈和大橋，可能已經改變了首都的中心。除此之外，亞的斯亞貝巴城全是一片片由雜亂骯臟的小道連接的棚戶貧民窟。

　　Poverty is pervasive, raising questions over how fast a consumer class will emerge.Agriculture is still a big source of national income, accounting for more than 40% of GDP andmore than 80% of employment. Almost all private businesses are small: family-ownedvendors and repair shops, the kind whose customers cannot suffer inflation for long. Creditis hard to come by for the unconnected. Only licensed exporters consistently benefit fromrepeated devaluations of the currency. To invest in Ethiopia is to invest in the frontier.

　　貧窮無處不在，到底有消費者能力的階層能多快增長，這是個問題。農業仍然是國家收入的一大來源，占據GDP的 40%，并促進了80%的就業人口。幾乎所有的私人企業都是小企業：家族小販和維修店，這些人不可能在那么長的通脹經濟中堅持住。而沒有關系網的商家，也很難有信譽。只有擁有經營執照的出口商才能從不斷貶值的貨幣中穩定獲利。投資埃塞俄比亞如同在投資在前線陣地。

　　That suits Gabriel Schulze, who runs SGI . He is thescion of an American frontier family. His great-great-grandfather, William Boyce Thompson,flirted with bankruptcy in the Old West and founded Newmont Mining, now a $23 billioncompany. Mr Schulze operates smoothly in Ethiopia because of connections built through hisfamily . In 2008 he established apermanent office in the capital, staffed by members of Ethiopia s class of returning exiles,including two daughters of former officials under the late emperor, Haile Selassie.

　　這種狀況正像經營SGI的Gabriel Schulze。他是美國前線家族后裔。他的曾曾祖父，William Boyce Thompson，在老西部破產，后來成立了Newmont Mining，現在是一個資產230億的公司。Schulze先生在埃塞俄比亞經營的很順利，因為他的家族的關系網。2008年，他在埃塞俄比亞首都成立了一個永久的辦公室，員工都是逃亡歸來的埃塞俄比亞人，包括末代皇帝Haile Selassie時期的前長官的女兒。

　　Connections are crucial. Ethiopia s doors are not all swung wide open to foreign investment,but rather opened selectively. The regime of Meles Zanawi, the prime minister, isideological and authoritarian: the ruling party and its allies won 99.6% of seats inparliament in the 2010 elections. Its labyrinthine bureaucracy is the bane of the smallestof private businesses. Mr Meles is working from a neo-Chinese blueprint, long on publicinvestment and state enterprise . Outsiders wanting to do business in Addis Ababa must forge good relations withMr Meles and his ministers.

　　這種關系網至關重要。埃塞俄比亞的大門向外國投資商敞開，但也是有選擇地敞開。總理 Meles Zanawi是個獨裁主義者：統治黨和其聯盟黨在2010年大選中贏得99.6%的席位。它復雜的官僚機構是小企業經濟的致命毒藥。Meles先生很長時間都在公共投資與國營公司工作，是新中國人的代表。外界想在亞的斯亞貝巴做生意的人就必須與Meles先生和他的內閣大臣們建立好關系。

　　Similarly, the larger, existing SGI investments in Ethiopiain a coffee-export business, acement plant and an oil firmare investments in the elite families who run them, withfamily and personal networks that extend back generations. The Bagersh brothers, ownersof the coffee business in SGI s portfolio, represent a third generation of coffee exporters.Tewodros Ashenafi, the founder of SouthWest Energy, an oil firm, is the great-grandson of aformer minister of war. Shonaid Jemmett-Page, chief operating officer of CDC, says that thisis the nature of investible companies in places like Addis Ababa. One of the problems in mostfrontier markets is there s generally a pretty small entrepreneurial class, she says.

　　同樣，更大的SGI投資項目，包括咖啡出口、水泥廠和石油公司，都是精英家族在經營，擁有幾代的家族及個人關系網。擁有SGI咖啡貿易Bagersh兄弟已是咖啡出口商的第三代接班人。西南能源石油公司創始人 Tewodros Ashenafi是一位戰時部長的曾孫。CDC首席運營官Shonaid Jemmett-Page說這是諸如亞的斯亞貝巴這樣投資地的特色，他說：大部分前沿市場都存在一個問題，就是一般創業階層非常小。

　　Some critics of Mr Meles nonetheless worry that he will give away the store toforeignersincluding bits of the country itself, they grumble, in the form of land farmed forexport, which has become a fast-growing business. At the Sheraton Addis , a returned exile who makesintroductions and brokers deals dismisses this notion with a story. A 19th-century emperoronce saw off foreign visitors who had perhaps overstayed their welcome. The emperor wassaid to have ordered the bottoms of their shoes to be checked carefully on the way out. Not acrumb of Ethiopia s soil was to go with them.

　　盡管如此，有些評論家也擔心 Meles會把生意都賣給外國人，包括這個國家本身，以土地收成形式的出口已成為一個快速增長的企業。而在Sheraton Addis的一個回國的逃亡者和經紀人講了一個故事，否認了這樣的看法。19世紀的國王在一次送別一隊外國游客時，讓他們仔細檢查鞋底，不允許他們帶走埃塞俄比亞一丁點的塵土。

　　Investing in Ethiopia;Frontier mentality

　　投資埃塞俄比亞; 前沿思維;

　　A new fund attests to the country s allureand tothe value of connections;

　　新投資，國家吸引力與關系網價值的有力證明;

　　Long benighted, Ethiopia is attracting attention for abetter reason. It has become Africa sfastest-growing non-energy economy .Investors have noticed. South Africa s largestconsumer-foods firm, Tiger Brands, expanded into Ethiopia last year with a big acquisition.Diageo and Heineken recently paid nearly $400m combined to acquire state breweries in thecountry.

　　埃塞俄比亞已經成為非洲經濟增長最快的無能源國家。這一點，投資者早就知道。西非最大的消費食品公司，Tiger Brands,在去年進行了一次大規模并購，進軍到埃塞俄比亞。Diageo和Heineken最近聯合花費4億美金收購了該國一個國營啤酒廠。

　　The latest proof came on May 9th, when Schulze Global Investments, an Americaninvestment firm and family office, announced that it had launched a $100m Ethiopia fund,the first private-equity fund focused exclusively on the country. Anchored by at least $15mfrom Britain s CDC, a government-owned provider of development finance, and $10m of thefamily s own money, the fund will invest in sectors from agribusiness and cement to healthcare and natural resources.

　　最新事件發生在5月9日，美國一家投資投資與家族財務管理公司，Schulze全球投資公司，宣布在埃塞俄比亞投資1億美金，這是第一筆專門針對埃塞俄比亞的私募基金。加上之前英國 CDC公司，一家政府所有的發展財務公司的至少1500萬美元投資，還有家族所有的1000萬美元，這些資金將用于農業企業、水泥、衛生保健和自然資源。

　　Investing in Ethiopia is not for the faint-hearted, however. With a projected national incomeof $38.5 billion this year, its population of 85m still ranks among the world s poorest. Thegovernment s big spending carries risks, including high inflation and heavy state borrowing that has shrunk the credit available to privatefirms. Much more borrowing and spending is planned, and needed. The heart of the Ethiopiancapital may be traversed by new concrete arteries and bridges, built by Italian and Chinesecontractors with Chinese loans. But the rest of Addis Ababa is a patchwork of dirt paths linedby corrugated-tin dwellings that are the capital s shantytowns and slums.

　　然而，投資埃塞俄比亞可不是為了慈善。雖然埃塞俄比亞今年國民收入為 385億美元，但按該國8500萬人口計算，它仍然位居世界最貧困國家之列。政府大幅消費帶來了危機，包括高通脹。巨額的國家借債已讓國家信譽對私人企業縮水。更多的借債和花費都在必要的計劃之中。從中國借錢、由意大利和中國建筑商建造的交通動脈和大橋，可能已經改變了首都的中心。除此之外，亞的斯亞貝巴城全是一片片由雜亂骯臟的小道連接的棚戶貧民窟。

　　Poverty is pervasive, raising questions over how fast a consumer class will emerge.Agriculture is still a big source of national income, accounting for more than 40% of GDP andmore than 80% of employment. Almost all private businesses are small: family-ownedvendors and repair shops, the kind whose customers cannot suffer inflation for long. Creditis hard to come by for the unconnected. Only licensed exporters consistently benefit fromrepeated devaluations of the currency. To invest in Ethiopia is to invest in the frontier.

　　貧窮無處不在，到底有消費者能力的階層能多快增長，這是個問題。農業仍然是國家收入的一大來源，占據GDP的 40%，并促進了80%的就業人口。幾乎所有的私人企業都是小企業：家族小販和維修店，這些人不可能在那么長的通脹經濟中堅持住。而沒有關系網的商家，也很難有信譽。只有擁有經營執照的出口商才能從不斷貶值的貨幣中穩定獲利。投資埃塞俄比亞如同在投資在前線陣地。

　　That suits Gabriel Schulze, who runs SGI . He is thescion of an American frontier family. His great-great-grandfather, William Boyce Thompson,flirted with bankruptcy in the Old West and founded Newmont Mining, now a $23 billioncompany. Mr Schulze operates smoothly in Ethiopia because of connections built through hisfamily . In 2008 he established apermanent office in the capital, staffed by members of Ethiopia s class of returning exiles,including two daughters of former officials under the late emperor, Haile Selassie.

　　這種狀況正像經營SGI的Gabriel Schulze。他是美國前線家族后裔。他的曾曾祖父，William Boyce Thompson，在老西部破產，后來成立了Newmont Mining，現在是一個資產230億的公司。Schulze先生在埃塞俄比亞經營的很順利，因為他的家族的關系網。2008年，他在埃塞俄比亞首都成立了一個永久的辦公室，員工都是逃亡歸來的埃塞俄比亞人，包括末代皇帝Haile Selassie時期的前長官的女兒。

　　Connections are crucial. Ethiopia s doors are not all swung wide open to foreign investment,but rather opened selectively. The regime of Meles Zanawi, the prime minister, isideological and authoritarian: the ruling party and its allies won 99.6% of seats inparliament in the 2010 elections. Its labyrinthine bureaucracy is the bane of the smallestof private businesses. Mr Meles is working from a neo-Chinese blueprint, long on publicinvestment and state enterprise . Outsiders wanting to do business in Addis Ababa must forge good relations withMr Meles and his ministers.

　　這種關系網至關重要。埃塞俄比亞的大門向外國投資商敞開，但也是有選擇地敞開。總理 Meles Zanawi是個獨裁主義者：統治黨和其聯盟黨在2010年大選中贏得99.6%的席位。它復雜的官僚機構是小企業經濟的致命毒藥。Meles先生很長時間都在公共投資與國營公司工作，是新中國人的代表。外界想在亞的斯亞貝巴做生意的人就必須與Meles先生和他的內閣大臣們建立好關系。

　　Similarly, the larger, existing SGI investments in Ethiopiain a coffee-export business, acement plant and an oil firmare investments in the elite families who run them, withfamily and personal networks that extend back generations. The Bagersh brothers, ownersof the coffee business in SGI s portfolio, represent a third generation of coffee exporters.Tewodros Ashenafi, the founder of SouthWest Energy, an oil firm, is the great-grandson of aformer minister of war. Shonaid Jemmett-Page, chief operating officer of CDC, says that thisis the nature of investible companies in places like Addis Ababa. One of the problems in mostfrontier markets is there s generally a pretty small entrepreneurial class, she says.

　　同樣，更大的SGI投資項目，包括咖啡出口、水泥廠和石油公司，都是精英家族在經營，擁有幾代的家族及個人關系網。擁有SGI咖啡貿易Bagersh兄弟已是咖啡出口商的第三代接班人。西南能源石油公司創始人 Tewodros Ashenafi是一位戰時部長的曾孫。CDC首席運營官Shonaid Jemmett-Page說這是諸如亞的斯亞貝巴這樣投資地的特色，他說：大部分前沿市場都存在一個問題，就是一般創業階層非常小。

　　Some critics of Mr Meles nonetheless worry that he will give away the store toforeignersincluding bits of the country itself, they grumble, in the form of land farmed forexport, which has become a fast-growing business. At the Sheraton Addis , a returned exile who makesintroductions and brokers deals dismisses this notion with a story. A 19th-century emperoronce saw off foreign visitors who had perhaps overstayed their welcome. The emperor wassaid to have ordered the bottoms of their shoes to be checked carefully on the way out. Not acrumb of Ethiopia s soil was to go with them.

　　盡管如此，有些評論家也擔心 Meles會把生意都賣給外國人，包括這個國家本身，以土地收成形式的出口已成為一個快速增長的企業。而在Sheraton Addis的一個回國的逃亡者和經紀人講了一個故事，否認了這樣的看法。19世紀的國王在一次送別一隊外國游客時，讓他們仔細檢查鞋底，不允許他們帶走埃塞俄比亞一丁點的塵土。