臺灣財經:復甦高雄經濟的世紀之戰

As a young democracy activist, Chen Chu was thrown into jail for opposing the military dictatorship that ruled Taiwan until the 1980s. Decades later, a more matronly Ms Chen is now mayor of Kaohsiung, the second most populous city, and the battle she is fighting is not political but economic.

當年，作爲一名年輕的民主活動人士，陳菊曾因反對臺灣軍事獨裁政權而鋃鐺入獄，這一獨裁政權統治臺灣一直到上個世紀80年代。幾十年後的今天，更爲穩重的陳菊在臺灣人口第二多的城市高雄擔任市長，她現在仍然在抗爭，不過，今天她的抗爭已不是政治抗爭，而是經濟抗爭。

The industrial port city in the tropical south was once dominated by industries such as ship building and petrochemicals. But competition from cheaper Chinese rivals forced many of those companies to shut or move their factories to mainland China. Even by the standards of Taiwan’s slack economy, Kaohsiung has struggled, economists say.

這個地處臺灣南部熱帶地區的工業港口城市，以前曾被造船和石化等行業主宰。但來自中國大陸成本更低的競爭對手的競爭，迫使許多高雄企業倒閉或將工廠轉移到大陸。經濟學家表示，即便根據蕭條的臺灣經濟的標準，高雄現在也是步履維艱。

Now Ms Chen is trying to attract investment and to help new kinds of businesses set up in Kaohsiung to reinvent the once-thriving city. Most strikingly, although a star of the opposition Democratic Progressive party, known for its hostility to China, she has travelled there many times to study its development and to promote her city.

如今，陳菊正努力吸引投資，並幫助新型企業在高雄創業，以令這個一度繁榮的城市復甦。最引人注目的是，儘管身爲臺灣反對黨民進黨(DPP，以對中國大陸懷有敵意而聞名)的明星人物，但她曾多次訪問大陸，考察大陸的發展並推介高雄。

How she fares is crucial, not only for Kaohsiung but for the rest of Taiwan.

她能取得多大成功很關鍵，不僅對於高雄如此，對於臺灣其他地區也是如此。

“Taiwan needs to create products which will make us competitive,” she says. “Otherwise it will be really difficult for us.”

“臺灣需要創造出讓我們具備競爭力的產品，”她表示，“否則，我們的確將遭遇困境。”

While industrial Kaohsiung has been hit harder than other Taiwanese cities, it is not alone in its struggle to compete against cheaper and sometimes more innovative rivals from elsewhere.

儘管工業城市高雄受到的衝擊超過臺灣其他城市，但在與其他地區成本更低、更具創新性的競爭對手展開艱難競爭方面，它的處境並非是獨一無二的。

Growth in Taiwan for 2013 is expected to have hit 1.7 per cent by the government’s official forecast, compared with the prediction of 3.5 per cent that it made last January. In 2012, growth was 1.3 per cent, the slowest rate since 2009.

根據臺灣官方預測，預計臺灣2013年的經濟增速將達到1.7%，而2013年1月的預測爲3.5%。2012年，臺灣經濟增長1.3%，爲2009年以來最低。（此文寫於2014年1月27日，臺灣行政院主計總處(Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics，DGBAS)在1月28日公佈的數字顯示，臺灣2013年經濟增速爲2.19%——編者注）

Weak growth reflects Taiwan’s reliance on exports, which account for 70 per cent of its economy but have suffered as the eurozone crisis and uncertainty in the Chinese economy dragged on global demand. At the same time, Taiwanese groups such as smartphone maker HTC and Acer, which manufactures electronics, have been overtaken by foreign rivals such as South Korea’s Samsung and China’s Lenovo.

增長乏力反映出臺灣對出口的依賴，出口佔臺灣經濟的70%，但由於歐元區危機和中國經濟的不確定性拖累全球需求，臺灣出口受到影響。同時，智能手機制造商宏達電(HTC)和電子產品製造商宏碁(Acer)等臺灣企業被韓國三星(Samsung)和中國大陸的聯想(Lenovo)等競爭對手所超越。

Those troubles have been compounded by the continued growth of Taiwanese-owned factories in China and southeast Asia. While production there helps companies’ profits, the impact on the economy is minimal.

設在中國大陸以及東南亞的臺灣工廠的持續增長，更是加重了這些困境。儘管那些地區的產量有利於臺灣企業增加利潤，但它們對臺灣經濟的影響微乎其微。

Many, if not most, economists are downbeat about Taiwan’s prospects. Most worrying, says Marcella Chow of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is the widening gap between exports and export orders.

很多、甚至大多數經濟學家都不看好臺灣前景。美銀美林(Bank of America Merrill Lynch)的瑪塞拉•周(Marcella Chow)表示，最令人擔憂的是，出口與出口訂單之間的差距日益拉大。

The former measures exports from Taiwan, while the latter includes goods made elsewhere. Recovering global demand has boosted orders, but exports of Made in Taiwan goods remain sluggish. “That’s a big structural problem that Taiwan is undergoing,” says Ms Chow.

出口衡量的是來自臺灣的出口，而出口訂單則包括其他地區製造的商品。全球需求日益復甦增加了訂單數量，但“臺灣製造”商品的出口仍顯乏力。瑪塞拉•周表示：“這是臺灣現在面臨的一個重大結構性問題。”

Since Ms Chen took office in 2010, she has been aggressive in promoting Kaohsiung to investors, including Chinese ones during her trips there, and trying to make a city polluted by years of industry more attractive as a place to live.

自從陳菊2010年上任以來，她一直大張旗鼓地向投資者推銷高雄，包括在訪問大陸期間向大陸投資者的推介，她還努力讓這個受到多年工業污染的城市，變成一座更具吸引力的宜居城市。

Former sugar and banana warehouses have been turned into chic cafés, shops and offices for digital animation companies, including one involved with the production of the Oscar-winning film Life of Pi. The port authority is expanding capacity to serve more cruises and cargo ships that shuttle goods from China to the west and need a stop-off, says Cheng Chien-Yu, harbourmaster.

曾經的白糖和香蕉倉庫被改造爲時尚咖啡廳、商鋪和數字動畫公司的辦公場所，包括參與制作奧斯卡(Oscar)獲獎影片《少年派的奇幻漂流》(Life of Pi)的一家公司。高雄港港務局務長程建宇表示，港務局正在擴大吞吐量，爲更多遊船以及從大陸向西方運輸商品並需要短暫停留的貨船提供服務。

But local businesspeople say the shift from traditional industries to more modern enterprises is still slow going. One of the few groups to have made the transition is Brogent. Founded by a former Acer engineer, the group makes amusement park simulators whose seats jump and shake in sync with specially made animations.

但臺灣本地商人表示，從傳統行業向更現代企業的轉型仍進展緩慢。智崴資訊科技(Brogent)就是爲數不多的已轉型成功的企業之一。該集團由一位前宏碁工程師創建，生產體感模擬遊樂設備，其座椅可以與特殊製作的動畫同步跳躍和搖晃。

The city helped find the land it needed to build its offices and the space it uses for testing and construction, says CH Ouyang, chief executive. Only in Kaohsiung, he says, could Brogent find the software developers as well as the steel workers and construction yards it needed. But, as he points out, few start-ups mix old and new industries as smoothly as his. “We’re just taking a first step,” says Mr Ouyang.

智崴首席執行官歐陽志宏(CH Ouyang)表示，高雄幫助該公司找到了興建辦公室和用於測試和施工的土地。他表示，只有在高雄，智崴才能找到它所需要的軟件開發人員以及鋼鐵工人和施工場地。但正如他指出的那樣，很少有初創企業能夠像該公司這樣順利地將新舊行業結合起來。歐陽志宏表示：“我們只是邁出了第一步。”