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伊拉克经济起飞 多数人并未受益

Ten years after the war that toppled Iraq's President Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi economy is booming, according to statistics - but most Iraqis say they have not benefited from the economic up-turn.

美国2003年出兵伊拉克，推翻了当时的总统萨达姆·侯赛因。10年后的今天，统计数据显示，伊拉克经济正在蓬勃发展。但大多数伊拉克人说，他们并没有从中得益。

Baghdad's Stock Exchange opened one year after the fall of Saddam Hussein as a private non-profit organization - replacing the government-owned Iraq Stock Exchange.

巴格达证券交易所在萨达姆政权倒台一年后作为一个私人的非营利机构开业，替代了原先政府全资拥有的伊拉克证券交易所。

Director Taha Ahmed al-Rubaye said there are 125 private and mixed-ownership (public and private) companies in Iraq. But based on the size of the economy, there should be five to 10 times that many. The government still dominates the economy and hinders reform.

塔哈·艾哈迈德·阿如巴耶是巴格达证券交易所总监。他说，如今伊拉克有125个私人和公私合营的企业。但根据如今伊拉克的经济规模，私人和公私合营企业的数量应该是现在数量的5到10倍。政府仍然占据经济的主导地位，并在阻碍经济改革。

“It's written in the constitution that Iraq must be transferred into a capital market country...with a market economy, or something like that, in the future," said al-Rubaye. "You cannot do that, make the private sector¹ work side to side with the government sector, unless you create companies.”

阿如巴耶说：“宪法明文规定，伊拉克将来必须转型成一个拥有市场经济和资本市场的国家。可是如果不创建更多的公司，让私营部门与政府部门齐头并进，那就根本没法完成转型。”

Iraq's economy is growing at 9 percent a year. And petroleum² production now is nearly 3 million barrels a day, making Iraq the third-largest oil exporter in the world, after Saudi Arabia and Russia.

伊拉克的经济正以每年9％的速度增长。其石油产量现在为每天近300万桶，是仅次于沙特阿拉伯和俄罗斯的世界第三大石油出口国。

New stores stocked with expensive goods would indicate a boom in consumer spending.

新开张的商店橱窗中摆放着的昂贵商品表明消费市场购销两旺。

But the picture is different for most Iraqis who still struggle to survive. Shopper Intissar Fadl said food prices are too high.

但是对于大多数伊拉克人来说，情景却是截然不同，因为他们每天都在为生存而苦苦挣扎。正在买东西的因提萨尔?法德勒说，食品价格实在太高了:

“It was a million times better during the days of Saddam,” said a Baghdad shopper.

“在萨达姆当政时，我们的日子比现在好过一百万倍。”

Clothes vendor³ Lateef Saleh said political instability is hurting his livelihood⁴. He said, “When there is an explosion the customers don't come because they are afraid, even when there are a lot of security forces around.”

服装商贩拉蒂夫·萨利赫说，政治不稳定正在影响他的生计。“当有爆炸发生的时候，顾客根本就不会来，因为他们害怕，即便周围有很多安全部队。”

Many Iraqis complain that the government has failed to rebuild roads and utilities like electricity and clean water plants.

许多伊拉克人抱怨说，政府没有重建道路以及公用设施，譬如发电厂和自来水厂。

A U.S. official who investigated fraud in the American reconstruction⁵ program here, Stuart Bowen, said the main reason is corruption⁷.

负责调查伊拉克重建计划欺诈案件的美国官员斯图尔特·鲍恩称，造成这种情况的主要原因是贪污腐败。

“The Iraqis really need to crack down on corruption, and that means modernizing⁸ their government systems of accountability," said Bowen. "Right now their budget process is very rudimentary, and that prevents good insight into how the billions and billions of dollars of their budget is spent.”

他说：“伊拉克人十分需要打击腐败，这意味着更新其政府的问责制度。他们现在的预算过程极其简陋，在这种情况下，他们不清楚数以十亿美元计的预算都是怎么花费的。”

Bowen said $8 billion of the $60 billion U.S. reconstruction program was diverted. And a senior Iraqi anti-fraud official said $800 million every week is being transferred illegally (laundered) to foreign bank accounts through fraudulent contracts.

鲍恩说，在美国提供的600亿美元伊拉克重建计划款项中，有80亿美元下落不明。伊拉克的一位反欺诈官员称，每周都有8亿美元被非法转移到外国银行帐户。

As a result experts say Iraq is one of the most corrupt⁶ countries in the world.

正像专家们所说的，伊拉克是世界上最腐败的国家之一。