腾飞梦碎:印度官僚体制让外资企业却步

Amid all the talk of closer business ties between Asia's two great emerging economies, Monday's inaugural meeting of the India-China chief ­executives' forum in New Delhi could scarcely have asked for two more appropriate chairmen.

目前各方对于在亚洲两大新兴经济体之间打造更紧密的商业联系谈论颇多，在此背景下，本周一在新德里召开的中印企业首席执行官论坛首次会议，确实很难找到比安尼尔•安巴尼和胡怀邦两人更合适的共同主席。

Billionaire Anil Ambani of India's Reliance group and Hu Huaibang of China Development Bank presided over an event designed to coincide with Chinese premier Li Keqiang's debut visit to India this week, and both talked up the odds that their countries could meet a $100bn trade target by 2015.

印度信实集团(Reliance)的亿万富翁安尼尔•安巴尼(Anil Ambani)和中国国家开发银行(CDB)董事长胡怀邦共同主持了这次会议。这次会议在时机上配合了中国总理李克强本周对印度的首次访问。两人都谈到，两国有望实现到2015年双边贸易额增至1000亿美元的目标。

It was an act the two men had ­practised before, however, not least as Mr Ambani's conglomerate has moved to raise more than $5bn in loans from China over the past few years, much of it co-ordinated by Mr Hu's bank, as part of a pattern of cash-strapped Indian companies seeking cheap ­Chinese financing.

然而，这两人并非初次搭档，尤其是因为阿姆巴尼旗下的企业集团过去几年从中国争取到逾50亿美元贷款，其中许多是由胡怀邦的银行协调的。这是资金紧张的印度企业寻求廉价中国资金这一模式的一个例子。

Another such deal was inked during Mr Li's trip, as the Essar Group unveiled a three-way oil-for-loans pact with CDB and oil group PetroChina, in which the Indian company will look to raise $1bn in exchange for supplying China with products from its oil ­refining business.

李克强访印期间达成了又一笔这样的交易。印度Essar集团宣布了一份与中国国开行和中石油(PetroChina)达成的“石油换贷款”三方协议，根据协议，这家印度公司将通过向中国供应其炼油部门的产品，筹得10亿美元的融资。

Yet while these agreements are proving a boon for overstretched Indian industrial houses and expanding Chinese state-backed banks alike, in other ways the story of the corporate links spanning these two Asian economies is rather less happy.

然而，尽管这些协议为印度亟需资金的工业企业和中国扩张中的国有控股银行都是一件好事，但在其他方面，这两个亚洲经济体之间企业纽带的故事并不都那么皆大欢喜。

Trade between India and China fell to $68bn in the year to March, a decline of 11 per cent caused mostly by a fall in Indian exports. This was led by sectors such as iron ore, where domestic regulatory snarl-ups have stopped shipments to China entirely.

在截止今年3月份的这一年里，中印贸易额下跌至680亿美元，跌幅为11%。这一下跌主要是由于印度出口的下降造成的，其中铁矿石等行业的出口下滑最为严重，原因是印度国内在监管上的阻塞，已叫停所有对华发货。

Even without such problems many Indian exporters have struggled to gain much of a foothold in China's expanding market, including large IT outsourcers such as Tata Consultancy Services, whose offices in Mumbai Mr Li visited yesterday.

即便没有这类问题，印度许多出口企业也很难在中国日益扩张的市场争得一席之地，这其中包括塔塔咨询服务公司(Tata Consultancy Services)这类大型信息技术外包公司。近日李克强曾访问塔塔位于孟买的办公室。

Indian companies and consumers, by contrast, have proved only too receptive to Chinese products, sucking in an ever-rising tide of imports, from giant industrial boilers and power plant turbines to the many colourful plastic Hindu deities sold on stalls in the country's heaving street markets.

与此相反，印度企业和消费者对中国产品十分欢迎，引发了不断上涨的进口热潮。印度从中国进口的产品既有巨型工业锅炉和电厂发电机组，也有印度繁忙街市的小摊上出售的色彩鲜艳的塑料印度神像。

“India has been much more ­receptive to China's money and goods than it has been to Chinese firms ­setting up shop,” says Eswar Prasad, an ­economist at the Brookings ­Institution. “It seems there is still a little layer of suspicion about some of these companies.”

美国布鲁金斯学会(Brookings Institution)经济学家埃斯瓦•普拉萨德(Eswar Prasad)表示：“相比起前来印度开展经营的中国企业，中国的资金和商品在印度更受欢迎。印度对某些中国企业似乎还有点怀疑。”

Such suspicions relate mostly to Chinese telecoms equipment makers, notably Huawei and ZTE, both with sizeable operations in the country, but whose business activities are often the object of national security worries from nervy Indian politicians.

这种怀疑主要涉及中国电信设备制造商，特别是华为(Huawei)和中兴(ZTE)。这两家企业在印度都拥有规模较大的业务，然而他们的商业活动经常成为紧张的印度政界人士在国家安全方面的担忧对象。

Elsewhere, many of China's most prominent players in sectors such as construction and infrastructure equipment are only now beginning to ­consider establishing domestic plants to serve India's market, instead of relying on exports alone.

而在建筑和工程机械等其他行业，中国许多最知名的公司如今刚刚开始考虑通过在印度国内开办工厂（而不是仅仅依靠向印度出口）来服务印度市场。

“When we go to China now we find all of the top players have an India investment strategy, which is a big change. It's just that not many want to begin making things here yet,” says Kamal Rungta, managing ­director at EJ McKay, a consultancy that advises Chinese companies ­considering entry into India's market.

咨询机构马凯公司(E.J. McKay)向考虑进入印度市场的中国企业提供建议，该公司董事总经理卡迈勒•罗塔(Kamal Rungta)表示：“如今我们去中国的时候发现，所有顶尖公司都拥有在印度投资的战略，这是一个巨大的变化。只是现在想在这里从事生产的公司还不多。”

But a trickle of players are moving in, including Sany Heavy Machinery, one of China's largest construction equipment makers, which began operations in the western city of Pune last year. TBEA, a power equipment manufacturer, is also setting up a plant in the business-friendly state of Gujarat.

不过，少数中国企业正移师印度，包括中国最大的工程机械制造商之一三一重工(Sany Heavy Machinery)，该公司去年在印度西部城市普纳投入运营。另外，电力设备制造商特变电工(TBEA)也在营商环境较好的古吉拉特邦设立工厂。

Yet even companies set on establishing facilities face numerous obstacles, as with Feida, a Chinese group making complex air quality control equipment for use in power plants and factories. The business earned around $100m in exports to India last year, managing director Andy Wang explains, but is still only examining options for domestic production.

然而，即使是有意在印度建厂的中国企业，也会面临许多障碍。菲达集团(Feida)的遭遇就是一例，这是中国一家为发电厂和工厂制造复杂的空气质量控制设备的集团。集团副总经理王剑波表示，去年该集团从对印出口赚取了约1亿美元的利润，但仍然只是在研究在印度国内生产的各项选择。

“It is difficult and, especially if you are searching for land or going through policy procedures, it can be troublesome,” he says. “India is doing better, and we want to grow here, but in China it is simpler. Land is easy, industrial parks are available. All you need is to select the place and go.”

他表示：“这样做很困难，特别是需要选址，还要走政策程序，这些都很麻烦。印度的情况正在改善，我们也希望在这里扩大业务，但是在中国这要简单些。选址很容易，工业园区是现成的。你只需要选好地方开工就行。”

Such concerns might feel oddly familiar to the many western ­companies that have struggled with India's slow-moving, fickle bureaucracy. In manufacturing, Chinese ­companies that otherwise might be attracted into a country that plans to spend $1tn on infrastructure over the next five years also face the same mix of onerous labour regulations and weak infrastructure that has hobbled India's own growth in this area.

曾与印度运转缓慢、反复无常的官僚体制艰难打过交道的西方企业，对这种担忧可能有怪异的同感。在制造业，那些可能被今后5年计划在基础设施上投入1万亿美元的印度吸引的中国企业，也得面临阻碍了印度本土制造业增长的繁琐劳动法规和薄弱基础设施的掣肘。

“As India gets more into domestic manufacturing, perhaps China will set up more facilities here to win over some portion of this activity,” says Chetan Ahya, Asia-Pacific managing director at Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)亚太区董事总经理舍唐•阿赫亚(Chetan Ahya)表示：“随着印度加大在国内制造业上的投入，也许中国将在印度设立更多工厂，在这方面分得一杯羹。”

“But for India to improve, it just needs to become more competitive in manufacturing. And China isn't ­stopping India from doing that.”

“但是，印度要想有所改进，就必须提升制造业的竞争力。中国并没有阻止印度这么做。”