2023年经济学人 非洲国家致富秘诀（2）（在线收听）

    Between 2009 and 2018 Africa attracted just 14% of the industry’s total spending on exploration, despite containing perhaps 30% of the planet’s mineral wealth.

    2009年至2018年间，非洲仅吸引了该行业勘探总支出的14%，尽管非洲的矿产财富可能占全球的30%。

    Botswana has minimised “Dutch disease”, whereby resource exports cause the local currency to rise, making other exports less competitive.

    博茨瓦纳已将“荷兰病”（即资源出口导致本币升值，降低其他出口产品竞争力的现象）降至最低。

    It has managed the value of the pula and set up a sovereign-wealth fund.

    它管理着普拉货币的价值，并建立了一个主权财富基金。

    Too many African countries have spent the proceeds of resource booms before they arrive.

    太多的非洲国家在资源繁荣到来之前就败光了它们的收益。

    In Botswana a stabilisation fund helps smooth boom-and-bust cycles.

    在博茨瓦纳，一个稳定基金可以帮助平稳繁荣与萧条的周期。

    Like many African countries, Botswana has struggled to diversify its exports and foster manufacturing.

    像许多非洲国家一样，博茨瓦纳一直在努力实现出口多样化和促进制造业发展。

    Both unemployment (25%) and income inequality (among the worst in the world) are high.

    失业率(25%)和收入不平等(世界最严重)都很高。

    Diamonds still make up more than 80% of export revenues.

    钻石仍然占出口收入的80%以上。

    Yet whereas petrostates such as Nigeria and Angola have ploughed money into industrial white elephants, Botswana has invested in future sources of wealth, including education and infrastructure.

    然而，当尼日利亚和安哥拉等石油国家将资金投入到无用的工业项目时，博茨瓦纳却投资于未来的财富来源，包括教育和基础设施建设。

    As new technology makes it possible to do more cutting and polishing in Botswana, rather than in India, the traditional hub, past investments in a skilled workforce will give it a chance to reap the rewards.

    排除传统的中心枢纽印度后，新技术使得更多钻石切割和抛光工作在博茨瓦纳也能进行，过去对熟练劳动力的投资将使其有机会获得回报。

    Better to have industrial strategies that build on existing strengths than try to conjure up new ones.

    在现有优势的基础上制定产业战略，比试图创造新的优势要好。

    Copying Botswana is not straightforward.

    复制博茨瓦纳案例并非易事。

    Diamonds are not a typical commodity and it is not a typical African country.

    钻石不是一种典型的商品，博茨瓦纳也不是一个典型的非洲国家。

    Thanks to a trio of astute chiefs who petitioned Britain more than a century ago, the then Bechuanaland became a protectorate, not a colony.

    多亏了三个精明的酋长在一个多世纪前向英国请愿，使得当时的贝古纳兰成为了一个受保护国，而不是殖民地。

    It thus avoided some of the traumas of imperialism.

    因此，它避免了一些帝国主义带来的创伤。

    (“I do object to being beaten by three canting natives,” harrumphed Cecil Rhodes at the time.)(当时塞西尔·罗兹愤愤不平地说：“我确实反对被三个伪善的当地人殴打。”)Its modern government was built on relatively pluralistic traditional institutions.

    它的现代政府是建立在相对多元化的传统制度之上的。

    Worryingly, under Ian Khama, the previous president, and Mokgweetsi Masisi, the current one, Botswana has shown signs of forgetting the secrets of its own success.

    令人担忧的是，在前任总统伊恩·卡马和现任总统莫科维特斯·马西西的领导下，博茨瓦纳已经开始逐渐忘记自己成功的秘诀了。

    Economic populism, protectionism and abuses of power are creeping in.

    经济民粹主义、保护主义和滥用权力正在悄然蔓延。

    Yet its history shows that getting the basics right goes a long way.

    然而，它的历史表明，让基本政策恢复正常有很长的路要走。

    Diamonds may not be for ever, but the benefits of sound policy can be.

    钻石可能不会永远存在，但合理政策的好处可以永存。