騰飛夢碎:印度官僚體制讓外資企業卻步

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.

目前各方對於在亞洲兩大新興經濟體之間打造更緊密的商業聯繫談論頗多，在此背景下，本週一在新德里召開的中印企業首席執行官論壇首次會議，確實很難找到比安尼爾•安巴尼和胡懷邦兩人更合適的共同主席。

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.

印度信實集團(Reliance)的億萬富翁安尼爾•安巴尼(Anil Ambani)和中國國家開發銀行(CDB)董事長鬍懷邦共同主持了這次會議。這次會議在時機上配合了中國總理李克強本週對印度的首次訪問。兩人都談到，兩國有望實現到2015年雙邊貿易額增至1000億美元的目標。

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，這兩人並非初次搭檔，尤其是因爲阿姆巴尼旗下的企業集團過去幾年從中國爭取到逾50億美元貸款，其中許多是由胡懷邦的銀行協調的。這是資金緊張的印度企業尋求廉價中國資金這一模式的一個例子。

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.

李克強訪印期間達成了又一筆這樣的交易。印度Essar集團宣佈了一份與中國國開行和中石油(PetroChina)達成的“石油換貸款”三方協議，根據協議，這家印度公司將通過向中國供應其煉油部門的產品，籌得10億美元的融資。

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，儘管這些協議爲印度亟需資金的工業企業和中國擴張中的國有控股銀行都是一件好事，但在其他方面，這兩個亞洲經濟體之間企業紐帶的故事並不都那麼皆大歡喜。

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月份的這一年裏，中印貿易額下跌至680億美元，跌幅爲11%。這一下跌主要是由於印度出口的下降造成的，其中鐵礦石等行業的出口下滑最爲嚴重，原因是印度國內在監管上的阻塞，已叫停所有對華髮貨。

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.

即便沒有這類問題，印度許多出口企業也很難在中國日益擴張的市場爭得一席之地，這其中包括塔塔諮詢服務公司(Tata Consultancy Services)這類大型信息技術外包公司。近日李克強曾訪問塔塔位於孟買的辦公室。

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.

與此相反，印度企業和消費者對中國產品十分歡迎，引發了不斷上漲的進口熱潮。印度從中國進口的產品既有巨型工業鍋爐和電廠發電機組，也有印度繁忙街市的小攤上出售的色彩鮮豔的塑料印度神像。

“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.”

美國布魯金斯學會(Brookings Institution)經濟學家埃斯瓦•普拉薩德(Eswar Prasad)表示：“相比起前來印度開展經營的中國企業，中國的資金和商品在印度更受歡迎。印度對某些中國企業似乎還有點懷疑。”

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.

這種懷疑主要涉及中國電信設備製造商，特別是華爲(Huawei)和中興(ZTE)。這兩家企業在印度都擁有規模較大的業務，然而他們的商業活動經常成爲緊張的印度政界人士在國家安全方面的擔憂對象。

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.

而在建築和工程機械等其他行業，中國許多最知名的公司如今剛剛開始考慮通過在印度國內開辦工廠（而不是僅僅依靠向印度出口）來服務印度市場。

“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.

諮詢機構馬凱公司(E.J. McKay)向考慮進入印度市場的中國企業提供建議，該公司董事總經理卡邁勒•羅塔(Kamal Rungta)表示：“如今我們去中國的時候發現，所有頂尖公司都擁有在印度投資的戰略，這是一個巨大的變化。只是現在想在這裏從事生產的公司還不多。”

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.

不過，少數中國企業正移師印度，包括中國最大的工程機械製造商之一三一重工(Sany Heavy Machinery)，該公司去年在印度西部城市普納投入運營。另外，電力設備製造商特變電工(TBEA)也在營商環境較好的古吉拉特邦設立工廠。

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廠的中國企業，也會面臨許多障礙。菲達集團(Feida)的遭遇就是一例，這是中國一家爲發電廠和工廠製造複雜的空氣質量控制設備的集團。集團副總經理王劍波表示，去年該集團從對印出口賺取了約1億美元的利潤，但仍然只是在研究在印度國內生產的各項選擇。

“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：“這樣做很困難，特別是需要選址，還要走政策程序，這些都很麻煩。印度的情況正在改善，我們也希望在這裏擴大業務，但是在中國這要簡單些。選址很容易，工業園區是現成的。你只需要選好地方開工就行。”

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.

曾與印度運轉緩慢、反覆無常的官僚體制艱難打過交道的西方企業，對這種擔憂可能有怪異的同感。在製造業，那些可能被今後5年計劃在基礎設施上投入1萬億美元的印度吸引的中國企業，也得面臨阻礙了印度本土製造業增長的繁瑣勞動法規和薄弱基礎設施的掣肘。

“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)亞太區董事總經理舍唐•阿赫亞(Chetan Ahya)表示：“隨着印度加大在國內製造業上的投入，也許中國將在印度設立更多工廠，在這方面分得一杯羹。”

“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，印度要想有所改進，就必須提升製造業的競爭力。中國並沒有阻止印度這麼做。”