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Manufacturing in Serbia
塞爾維亞的制造業
Balkan legacy
巴爾干遺產
Fiat goes east to lower costs
菲亞特東遷降低成本
MASS-MARKET carmakers in western Europe are enduring car sales at their lowest since 1993.
暢銷的汽車制造商在西歐正忍受著自1993年以來的最低銷量。
They are losing money on their assembly plants in their home countries, yet politics makes it hard to close them.
他們在本國組裝廠賠錢，但政策又使得很難將它們關閉。
That has encouraged them to seek ways of manufacturing more cheaply in emerging-market states on Europe's periphery, to drive down their average costs.
這鼓勵他們在歐洲外圍國家尋找更便宜的新興市場的方式來壓低他們的平均成本。
Take Fiat, which lost 247m in the third quarter of this year.
菲亞特在今年第三季度虧損2.47億。
Some 5,700 workers have been put on extended leave in Italy, and even in Poland Fiat has had to shed 1,450 jobs.
在意大利約5,700名工人休長假，在波蘭菲亞特甚至不得不裁員1,450個工作崗位。
But its Serbian operation is expanding, and in just over a year has gone from zero to becoming the country's largest exporter.
但在塞爾維亞業務卻不斷擴大，并在短短一年多時間已經從零到成為其最大的出口商。
Since March, Fiat has taken on 600 new workers and now employs 3,800 at its plant at Kragujevac, a town in central Serbia.
自三月以來，菲亞特在塞爾維亞中部的一個小鎮的工廠招聘了600名新工人，現在已擁有員工3,800名。
Local suppliers to the plant have taken on a further 1,200 recruits.
本地供應商的工廠也新招聘了1,200名新員工。
Fiat has invested 1.2 billion in the plant, which now turns out 600 of the company's chunky, family-friendly 500L small cars each day.
菲亞特已經在這個廠投資1.2億美元，每天產出600輛耐用的、適合家用的500L小型車。
The region was so badly hit in the 1990s by the collapse of Yugoslavia, followed by sanctions and war that it became known as hunger valley.
上世紀90年代南斯拉夫解體對該地區造成了嚴重的打擊，再加上制裁和戰爭使它成為饑餓的山谷。
But it had an industrial legacy in Zastava, maker of Yugo cars and Kalashnikov rifles.
但它在扎斯塔瓦有一個工業遺產，優吾車和卡拉什尼科夫步槍的制造商。
In 1989, the last full year of the old Yugoslavia, 180,950 cars rolled off the production lines. In 2004 Zastava produced only 13,300 of its ropy models.
1989年，老南斯拉夫全年有180,950輛汽車從生產線下線。在2004年卻只生產了13,300輛它的ropy型號。
What saved Zastava from oblivion was its links to Fiat, which dated back to 1954.
與菲亞特的關系使扎斯塔瓦免于被遺忘，這個關系可追溯到1954年。
In 2008 the assets of Zastava were transferred to a new company, Fiat Automobili Srbija, owned 67% by the Italian firm.
2008年扎斯塔瓦的資產被轉移到一個新的公司，位于意大利的菲亞特汽車有限公司SRBIJA擁有67％的股權。
Since then, the old Zastava plant has been demolished. In the new one, workers with an average age of 30 move around silently, tapping instructions into computer terminals that control the plant's robots.
從那時起老扎斯塔瓦廠就被拆毀了。在平均年齡為30歲的新廠里工人在默默地將指令輸入計算機終端控制工廠的機器人。
The rationale for producing in Serbia is cost: the wage Fiat pays there is a fifth of what it pays in Italy, and a third of what it pays in Poland.
在塞爾維亞生產的理由是成本：菲亞特支付的工資只有在意大利的五分之一，是在波蘭的三分之一。
Last November, however, protests from disgruntled workers forced Fiat to increase wages in Kragujevac by 13%.
然而去年11月不滿的工人迫使菲亞特在克拉古耶瓦茨增加13％工資。
The Serbian government subsequently agreed to compensate Fiat for this by paying it 10,000 for each employee it took on—not the first time a government has had its arm twisted by a carmaker into providing subsidies.
隨后塞爾維亞政府同意為每一位員工補償菲亞特10000歐元，這不是政府第一次由汽車制造商擰著胳膊為其提供補貼。
It also promised Fiat a further 3,000 per car to make cheaper 500Ls for the Serbian market.
它還承諾每輛車補貼菲亞特3,000歐元降低塞爾維亞市場500Ls車的價格。
France and rival car importers cried foul, and the European Commission ruled that Serbia, a candidate for European Union membership, had indeed violated state-aid rules.
法國和競爭對手的汽車進口商哭訴違反規則，歐盟委員會裁定塞爾維亞的確觸犯了國家援助規則，而其是加入歐盟的候選國。
The car-price subsidy was abandoned but the cash-for-workers one was not.
汽車價格補貼被放棄，但工人現金補貼沒有。
The plant could make 200,000 cars a year but its production will be lower.
工廠一年可以生產200,000輛汽車，但其產量將會降低。
One reason is that Serbia failed to persuade Russia to include cars in a free-trade agreement struck in 2011.
原因之一是2011年塞爾維亞未能說服俄羅斯將汽車列入自由貿易協定。
Kragujevac has good transport links and is close to Fiat's main European markets.
克拉古耶瓦茨擁有良好的交通是菲亞特在歐洲的主要市場。
The government would like to encourage more such investment, because too much of Serbia's measly economic growth since 2008 has been achieved without creating jobs.
政府希望有更多的投資，因為自2008年以來塞爾維亞可憐的經濟增長創造不了多少就業機會。
How annoying, then, that one of the advertisements made to publicise the 500L in America shows the cars arriving as women strip off their outer garments to the cry of: The Italians are coming!
討厭的是在美國做廣告宣傳500L汽車時婦女脫掉外衣喊叫：意大利人都來了！
If only potential American investors knew that these Italians are really Serbs.
假如只有潛在的美國投資者知道這些意大利實際上是塞爾維亞的。
