Proton 马来西亚宝腾汽车A fork in the road何去何从?（陈继龙 编译）Nov 30th 2006 | HONG KONGFrom The Economist print editionMalaysia's crisis-ridden national carmaker faces a stark choice危机重重的马来西亚国有汽车制造商面临严峻抉择。WHAT will become of Proton, Malaysia's struggling carmaker? （1）A political project set up in the 1980s, it never picked up speed, has been overtaken by foreign competitors and has become embroiled[1] in a struggle over its future direction. With its cash reserves running low, it is now in danger of breaking down altogether. The government, which hopes to place the company with a “strategic partner” by next February, simply wants to extricate[2] itself from the mess with the minimum of humiliation. Which route it will take is the subject of feverish speculation.苦苦挣扎的马来西亚汽车制造商宝腾将会怎样呢？建于上世纪八十年代的宝腾是政府扶植的一个汽车项目，发展一直比较迟缓，已经被外国竞争对手赶超，如今开始艰难地寻找未来的出路。由于现金储备不断走低，它已濒临彻底崩溃。马来西亚政府希望在明年 2 月前为该公司找到一个“战略伙伴”，它现在只想在尽可能保全颜面的同时脱离窘境。关于它将何去何从已经成为当下热议的话题。Proton was set up by the government in 1983 and started building cars two years later in association with Mitsubishi of Japan. It was a central part of the strategy laid out by Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister at the time, to transform Malaysia into an industrialised nation by 2020. （ 2 ） The idea was that a big carmaker would create jobs, provide access to technologies, bring in export earnings and spawn a host of supporting industries. But Proton never got big. Although it once had 65% of the local market, output never rose above 227,000 cars a year and exports never exceeded 20,000 units annually. In an indu...
