古巴電腦人才上網尋找美國客戶

MEXICO CITY — At his parents’ cramped house in Havana, Yondainer Gutiérrez builds apps and websites on a makeshift computer that runs on pirated software. He has no Internet access there, so he rents time on a friend’s connection to send his work to clients in France, Britain, Canada and the rest of Latin America.

墨西哥城——在哈瓦那父母的狹小房子裏，尤達內爾·古鐵雷斯(Yondainer Gutiérrez)用一臺安裝着盜版軟件的破舊電腦編寫應用和創建網站。由於那裏沒有聯網，他需要租用朋友的網絡來把自己的工作成果發送給法國、英國、加拿大和拉丁美洲其他地方的客戶。

This is outsourcing, Cuban-style, a little-advertised circle of software developers, web designers, accountants and translators who — despite poor and expensive Internet access — sell their skills long-distance.

這是一種鮮爲人知的古巴式外包服務。這些軟件開發人員、網頁設計師、會計師和翻譯會把自己的技術賣給遠在他鄉的顧客——儘管網絡連接又差又貴。

And ever since the United States in February authorized Americans to import goods and services from Cuban entrepreneurs for the first time in half a century, they have their eyes on America as well.

今年2月，美國開了半個世紀以來的先河，開始允許國民進口古巴從業人員提供的商品和服務。此後，古巴人也盯上了美國市場。

“This opens up the world,” Mr. Gutiérrez, 27, said of the new rules, which mean that an American can hire Cubans, or buy a limited range of goods from them, so long as they work in the private sector, not for the state.

“這打開了通往世界的大門，”27歲的古鐵雷斯提到新規定時說。這意味着，美國人可以聘用古巴人，或者購買他們提供的有限範圍內的商品，只要他們身處私營領域，而不是爲國家工作。

After President Obama announced a new era of engagement with Cuba in December, Havana has been awash with American executives scouting business opportunities and hoping to sell commercial flights, yogurt, pharmaceuticals and other products.

去年12月，奧巴馬總統宣佈開啓與古巴交往的新時代，在那之後，美國商界高管紛紛涌至哈瓦那，不僅是爲了探查商機，也希望把商業機票、酸奶、藥品和其他產品銷售給古巴人。

Of course, there is still an American embargo against Cuba. Trade is complicated by the fact that American exporters are banned from offering credit to their Cuban customers, and many more restrictions will have to be lifted before Americans can freely invest on the island.

當然，美國仍然在對古巴實施禁運。美國禁止出口商提供信貸給古巴客戶，這讓貿易往來變得複雜。而在美國人可以自由投資古巴之前，還有很多其他限制條款需要解除。

But under Mr. Obama’s new policy, Cuba’s tiny outsourcing sector is now open for American business, several experts said.

但一些專家說，在奧巴馬的新政策下，古巴微小的外包行業現在可以接納美國客戶了。

“This has an immediate impact helping entrepreneurs in Cuba,” said Tomas Bilbao, the executive director of the Cuba Study Group in Washington, referring to the new regulations.

“這會馬上產生影響，幫助古巴的創業者，”華盛頓古巴研究團體(Cuba Study Group)的執行主任托馬斯·畢爾巴(Tomas Bilbao)在談到新規定時說。

Cuba is certainly no Bangalore and is unlikely to ever rival the great outsourcing hubs. But more and more Cubans are marketing their services online, using skills obtained in the country’s socialist education system and workarounds learned from years of hardship.

古巴當然不是班加羅爾，可能永遠都無法與那些一流的外包中心抗衡。但是越來越多的古巴人開始利用在該國社會主義教育體系獲得的技能，以及在艱難歲月中學到的變通方法，在網上推銷自己的服務。

Websites like , Behance, and Traductores Autónomos carry postings from Cubans across a dozen cities, from Pinar del Río in the west to Santiago de Cuba in the east.

在、Behance、和Traductores Autónomos這樣的網站上，有不少古巴人發的帖子，他們來自西起比那爾德里奧，東至古巴聖地亞哥的十幾個城市。

There are no official figures, but nearly a dozen Cubans with postings on online job sites, who were contacted by telephone or by email, said that this work was their main source of income and that their peers were doing the same. Some said they already had American clients who hired them through middlemen.

目前沒有官方數據可以參考，但是我們通過電話或電郵聯繫了在招聘網站發帖的十幾個古巴人，他們說這種工作是其主要收入來源，他們的同伴也是一樣。有人說，已經有一些美國客戶通過中間商僱用了他們。

John McIntire, a former investment banker and chairman of Cuba Emprende Foundation, a nonprofit that trains Cuban entrepreneurs, said the computer programming sector had the greatest potential to flourish under the new American regulations.

約翰·麥金太爾(John McIntire)曾在投資銀行工作，目前是爲古巴創業者提供培訓的非營利機構古巴承諾基金會((Cuba Emprende Foundation)的主席，他說，在美國新的規定下，最有可能繁榮發展的領域是計算機編程。

“It’s in huge demand,” said Mr. McIntire, speaking at a conference in Washington hosted by the Brookings Institution last week. “And guess what? Cubans are world class at it.”

“這個領域有巨大的需求，”麥金太爾上週在華盛頓舉行的布魯金斯學會(Brookings Institution)會議上說。“而且你們知道嗎，古巴人在這方面有世界一流的的水平。”

Many who work at the University of Information Sciences, or UCI, near Havana, or the José Antonio Echeverría Higher Polytechnic Institute, or Cujae (pronounced Coo-hai), moonlight as freelance programmers, using the institutes’ broadband to transfer large files, software developers said.

在哈瓦那附近的信息科學大學（University of Information Sciences，簡稱UCI），或何塞·安東尼奧·埃切維里亞高等技術學院（José Antonio Echeverría Higher Polytechnic Institute，簡稱Cujae，發音Coo-hai），有很多人兼職當自由程序員，利用學校的寬帶傳輸大文件，軟件開發者表示。

Others buy dial-up connections on the black market — for about $200 per month — or rent time on wireless connections at big hotels. The smoky lobby of the Habana Libre hotel in downtown Havana serves as an office for Cubans who write software, build apps, unblock or fix mobile telephones, or rent houses. They huddle daily on deep armchairs and pay $8 per hour for Wi-Fi.

其他人在黑市上購買撥號連接——大約每月200美元——或按時段租用大酒店的無線連接。在哈瓦那市中心，哈瓦那自由飯店(Habana Libre Hotel)煙霧繚繞的大廳被一些古巴人當作辦公室，他們寫軟件、開發應用、解鎖或修復手機，或出租房屋，每天都坐在深深的扶手椅裏，爲Wi-Fi支付每小時8美元的費用。

Dairon Medina, 28, a Cuban computer programmer who worked as a freelancer for several years before moving to Ecuador four years ago, hires colleagues in Cuba to do jobs for clients in Argentina, Canada, Germany and the United States.

28歲的達爾隆·麥地那(Dairon Medina)是一名古巴電腦程序員，四年前搬到了厄瓜多爾，在那之前，他當過幾年的自由職業者。現在他聘請古巴的同事爲阿根廷、加拿大、德國和美國的客戶工作。

He believes Cuba’s proximity — 90 miles across the Straits of Florida — is a plus.

他認爲，古巴與美國地理位置上的接近——佛羅里達海峽的90英里——是一個加分項。

“There’s a cultural affinity,” he said by Skype. “And then there’s the question of time zones.”

“這有一種文化親和力，”他通過Skype表示。“再有就是時區問題。”

If American clients began hiring Cubans on a regular basis, he said, “it could be an immense market” for Cuba.

如果美國客戶開始常規性地僱用古巴人，他說，這對古巴“可能是一個巨大的市場”。

Oquel Llanes, a fluent Russian speaker who works with a Spanish tourist company in Havana and writes translations on the side, said there was constant demand.

歐奎爾·蘭斯(Oquel Llanes)能說一口流利俄語，在哈瓦那的一家西班牙旅遊公司工作，同時做着筆譯兼職工作，他說這方面的需求很穩定。

“Translators are like barbers,” he said by telephone. “No matter what, people will always need them.”

“譯員就是像理髮師，”他在電話中說。“不管怎樣，人們總是會需要他們的。”

Especially when they come cheap. Mr. Llanes, 52, who studied mathematics and computer science in Moscow in the 1980s, said he charged between $5 and $10 per page to translate literary criticism and history books. That is hardly a fortune when a page can take an entire day, he said, but much more than the average $20 per month paid to state workers.

特別是當他們開價便宜的時候。蘭斯現年52歲，20世紀80年代曾在在莫斯科學習數學和計算機科學，他稱自己翻譯文學批評和歷史書籍的收費是每頁5美元到10美元。他說，翻譯一頁有時候會花費一整天的時間，做這個發不了財，但比公務員每月平均20美元的工資強多了。

The Cuban government has long had a policy of exporting services, especially those of doctors, nurses and sports trainers, in order to increase state income. Some 65,000 Cubans are currently working for the state overseas, earning it about $8 billion per year.

古巴政府有一個出口服務的長期政策，特別是醫生、護士和運動訓練師的服務，以增加國家收入。目前大約6.5萬古巴人在海外爲國家工作，每年約爲古巴賺取80億美元。

Datys, a Cuban state-owned software company with 700 employees, sells services to Latin America, according to its website, and Desoft, a state-owned high-tech company, has several clients in Cuba.

古巴國營軟件公司Datys網站上的資料顯示，它有700名員工，在拉丁美洲銷售服務。國有高新技術企業Desoft在古巴有好幾個客戶。

Were the government to improve Internet connectivity and telecommunications, Cuba could develop a competitive outsourcing sector, either state-run or independent, experts said.

如果政府改進了互聯網連接和通訊，古巴的服務外包部門可以變得很有競爭力，無論是國營還是獨立公司，專家說。

“If you wanted to run a Spanish-speaking call center, why do it in Mumbai?” Mr. Bilbao said. “Maybe Cuba could eventually do that.”

“如果你想經營一個西班牙語呼叫中心，爲什麼要去孟買呢？”畢爾巴說。“也許古巴最終可能做到這一點。”

That is still a way off, though, experts said. Under current sanctions, Americans are permitted to buy services only from the private sector; Cuba may not wish to see that sector grow.

不過這還有一段路要走，專家表示。現行的制裁條款只允許美國人從私營部門購買服務；而古巴可能不希望看到私營部門增長。

Improved Internet connectivity is also a big “if.” A plan apparently leaked by the Cuban communications ministry and published this week in a blog, La Chiringa, indicates that the government aims to connect 50 percent of Cubans to broadband by 2020, but the anticipated speed would be too slow to stream video or play games online.

改善互聯網連接也是一個很大的假設。本週，博客La Chiringa貼出了一份似乎是古巴通信部泄露的計劃，顯示政府的目標是在2020年前，讓50%古巴人用上寬帶，但計劃中的數據傳輸速度太慢，不足以觀看流視頻或玩在線遊戲。

As the United States eases restrictions, it will test the Cuban government’s willingness to open up, Mr. Kavulich said.

美國放寬了限制條款，這將考驗古巴政府開放的意願，美古貿易和經濟委員會(U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council)的約翰·卡武裏奇(John Kavulich)說。

“At some point the impediments will leave the shores of the United States and wash up on the Malecon,” he said, referring to Havana’s seafront promenade.

“在某個時候，問題將漂離美國海岸，被衝到馬勒孔，”他說。馬勒孔是哈瓦那的海濱大道。

For now, experts said, restrictions on both sides are limiting engagement with Cuba’s private sector.

專家表示，雙方各自的限制條件，正在制約美國與古巴私營部門的來往。

Mr. Gutiérrez, whose products include an app that helps drivers find a parking space and AlaMesa, an online Cuban restaurant guide, said that, for the moment, he would have to find a workaround to get payment from American clients. His projects range from around $500 for a basic website to several times that amount for one project that required hiring three people.

在古鐵雷斯的產品中，有一個應用可以幫助司機找到停車位，還有一個是古巴餐館在線指南AlaMesa。他說，目前他必須找到一個變通辦法，以便從美國客戶那裏收款。他的服務範圍從建立一個基本網站，收費約500美元，到開展需要僱用三個人的項目，收費幾千美元。

Banking and Internet problems aside, he said, he is optimistic that the thaw between Cuba and the United States will help freelancers like himself.

他說，除了銀行和互聯網問題之外，他樂觀地認爲，古巴與美國之間的關係解凍將有利於像他這樣的自由職業者。

“There’s a lot to build here in the way of services; there’s a whole market to exploit,” he said. “All I need is a normal Internet connection and a way of getting paid.”

“關於服務，還有很多東西需要興建；這裏有整整一個市場需要開拓，”他說。“我需要的無非是一個正常的互聯網連接，以及一個收款方式。”