英语阅读：082《经济学家》读译参考之八十二：何去何从－马来西亚宝腾汽车面临抉择.docVIP

TEXT 82 Proton 马来西亚宝腾汽车 A fork in the road 何去何从?（陈继龙 编译） Nov 30th 2006 | HONG KONG From The Economist print edition Malaysias crisis-ridden national carmaker faces a stark choice 危机重重的马来西亚国有汽车制造商面临严峻抉择。 WHAT will become of Proton, Malaysias struggling carmaker? （1）A political project set up in the 1980s, it never picked up speed, has been overtaken by foreign competitors and has become embroiled[1] in a struggle over its future direction. With its cash reserves running low, it is now in danger of breaking down altogether. The government, which hopes to place the company with a “strategic partner” by next February, simply wants to extricate[2] itself from the mess with the minimum of humiliation. Which route it will take is the subject of feverish speculation. 苦苦挣扎的马来西亚汽车制造商宝腾将会怎样呢？建于上世纪八十年代的宝腾是政府扶植的一个汽车项目，发展一直比较迟缓，已经被外国竞争对手赶超，如今开始艰难地寻找未来的出路。由于现金储备不断走低，它已濒临彻底崩溃。马来西亚政府希望在明年2月前为该公司找到一个“战略伙伴”，它现在只想在尽可能保全颜面的同时脱离窘境。关于它将何去何从已经成为当下热议的话题。 Proton was set up by the government in 1983 and started building cars two years later in association with Mitsubishi of Japan. It was a central part of the strategy laid out by Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister at the time, to transform Malaysia into an industrialised nation by 2020. （2）The idea was that a big carmaker would create jobs, provide access to technologies, bring in export earnings and spawn a host of supporting industries. But Proton never got big. Although it once had 65% of the local market, output never rose above 227,000 cars a year and exports never exceeded 20,000 units annually. In an industry dominated by a handful of global giants, each producing 3m-6m cars a year, Proton remains a minnow[3]. 宝腾由马来西亚政府于1983年组建成立，两年后开始与日本三菱公司合作生产汽车。它是时任马来西亚总理的马哈蒂尔·默哈曼德战略部署（即到2020年将马来西亚建设成为一个工业化国家）的一个重要组成部分。在马来西亚政府看来，一个“大”型的汽车制造公司可以创造就业、引进技术、出口创汇以及造就诸多配套产业。可是宝腾一直都没有变“大”。虽然它曾一度占有当地市场65%的份额，但其年产量始终未曾超过22.7万辆，年出口量也都在2万辆以下。在一个由少数年产300～600万辆汽车的全球巨头占主导地位的产业领域内，宝腾依然是个“小不点”。 （3）Yet it has refused to scale down[4] its ambitions. Proton has bu