经济学人:哥伦比亚基础设施 (1)

 　　It costs more to send a 40-foot container by road from Bogotá, Colombia's capital, 通过陆路将一个40英尺的集装箱从哥伦比亚首都波哥大

　　to Buenaventura on its Pacific coast than to ship it on from Buenaventura to Shanghai. 运往太平海岸的布埃纳文图拉，其成本比通过海运从布埃纳文图拉运往上海的成本还高。
　　According to the World Economic Forum 1, Colombia's roads are among the worst in Latin America. 世界经济论坛表示，哥伦比亚公路是拉美地区最糟糕的公路之一。
　　For more than 20 years governments have tried to improve matters, with little success. Now Colombia is trying again. 20多年来，政府尝试过改善这些问题，但收效甚微。现在哥伦比亚又开始了新的尝试。
　　Central to the latest attempt, called the Fourth Generation (4G) road-development programme, 最近的一个项目被称为第四代(4G)公路发展项目，
　　is the National Development Finance corporation (FDN), which was launched in 2013. 该项目以国家发展金融公司（FDN）为中心，FDN于2013年成立。
　　Unlike most development banks elsewhere, it funds at most 25% of any project. 和其他大部分发展银行不同的是，FDN对任何项目的资助最多为该项目的25%。
　　It must seek out private investors 2, at home and abroad, and package projects to offer acceptable risks and returns. FDN必须在国内外寻找私人投资者，并将项目打包以提供可接受的风险和回报。
　　Colombia's needs are so great, says Clemente del Valle, the FDN's president, that it "can't just sit around and wait till those markets are developed." 哥伦比亚的需求非常大，FDN主席Clemente del Valle表示。哥伦比亚“不能无所事事坐等那些市场自己发展起来。”
　　That forces it to support only viable 3 proposals, says Ramiro Lopez-Ghio of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). 那种压力迫使它只能支持可行建议，美洲开发银行（IDB）的Ramiro Lopez-Ghio说道。
　　The result is that the FDN's involvement is a signal of quality. It gives investors comfort in other ways, too. 结果是FDN的参与成了一种项目质量的信号，也在其他方面给了投资者一种安慰。
　　The bank offers a peso credit line that helps foreign investors offset 4 their exchange-rate risk. 银行提供一种比索信用额度帮助外国投资者抵消他们的汇率风险。
　　And it lobbied congress to make it easier for Colombian pension funds to invest in the infrastructure 5-debt funds it helped set up. 银行对国会进行游说使利用哥伦比亚养老基金投资基础设施债务基金变得更加容易，后者也由该银行帮助成立。
　　Another aim of the FDN is to help fight graft 6. This is common in government infrastructure projects the world over. FDN的另一个目标是帮助反腐败。贪腐在全世界的政府基础设施项目中非常普遍。
　　Colombia has been no exception. In one recent scandal, dubbed 7 the Merry-Go-Round, construction firms overpriced work and bribed 8 politicians, 哥伦比亚也不例外。在最近的一起丑闻中，建筑公司抬高工程价格并向政客行贿，
　　including Bogotá's former mayor, who was sentenced to 24 years in jail. (He is appealing.) 其中包括波哥大的前市长，他被判刑24年。（目前他在上诉。）
　　And it is one of at least ten Latin American countries where Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction giant, bribed politicians to win contracts. 在至少10个拉美国家中，就有一个国家的政客收受巴西建筑巨头Odebrecht的中标行贿。
　　Respected foreign institutions have been brought in to try to change all that. 为了改变这种现象，备受尊重的国外机构被引进。
　　Though Colombia's government is the FDN's majority shareholder 9, 虽然哥伦比亚政府是FDN的大股东，
　　the International Finance Corporation and the Andean Development Corporation each hold around 8-9%. 但国际金融公司和安第斯开发公司各持约8-9%的股份。
　　The Sumitomo Mitsui Banking 10 Corporation, a private Japanese bank, holds a similar share. 日本私有银行三井住友银行也持相当股份。