BEC中级阅读:经合组织敦促印度加快改革

India must push through further reforms if it is to achieve the government’s objective of double-digit economic growth by 2011, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development warned yesterday.

总部位于巴黎的这个智库机构在其首份印度经济调查中表示，印度逐步转向更为市场化的经济体制，为该国带来了不可否认的好处。

In its first economic survey of India, the Paris-based think-tank said the country’s gradual shift away towards a more market-based economy had yielded undeniable benefits.

目前，印度的人均国内生产总值正以每年7.5%的速度增长，远远高于1950-1980年间的1.25%。经合组织表示，以购买力平价(PPP)计算，更快的经济增速已经使得印度在2006年以微弱优势超越日本，成为全球第三大经济，仅次于美国和中国。

India’s economic growth per capita was now rising by 7.5 per cent annually versus the 1.25 per cent seen between 1950 and 1980. The faster growth, the OECD said, had resulted in India becoming the third-largest economy in the world in 2006 in purchasing power parity terms behind only the US and China and slightly ahead of Japan.

但该组织警告称，印度未能充分发掘自己作为一个劳动力丰富经济体的比较优势，原因是高水平的就业保护阻止了企业为大规模制造业雇佣工人。

But it warned India was not fully exploiting its comparative advantage as a labour-abundant economy because of high levels of employment protection that deterred companies from hiring workers for large-scale manufacturers.

在雇员10人以上企业工作的人数，仅占印度就业人口总数的3.75%，远远低于任何一个经合组织国家。印度的工作保护法规仅比两个经合组织国家宽松，而严于所有其它成员国以及中国与巴西。

Employment in companies with more than 10 employees accounts for 3.75 per cent of employment in India, a much smaller proportion than any OECD country. India has stricter job protection laws than China, Brazil and all but two OECD countries.

经合组织呼应了要求改革《工业争端法》(Industrial Disputes Act)的长期呼声。该法要求，如果制造工厂雇佣超过100名工人，那么，哪怕企业只解雇1名工人，也要获得政府批准。

It echoed longstanding calls for reform of the Industrial Disputes Act that requires businesses to obtain government permission to lay off even a single worker from manufacturing plants with more than 100 employees.

该组织称：“有必要降低就业保护的严格程度，并且可以相应扩大递增型离职补偿金的范围。”改革会帮助农村劳动力转向更具生产力的领域。

“Reduction in the stringency of employment protection is needed and could be balanced by an increase in the extent of accrual-based severance payments,” it said. Reform would help shift rural labour to productive areas.

经合组织还敦促印度政府加速开放国际贸易，并将保险业和零售业等受到严密保护的服务行业向外商直接投资开放。
It also urged the government to open the economy more rapidly to international trade and to foreign direct investment in tightly protected service sectors, such as insurance and retailing.

小商人经常举行示威活动，抗议信实工业(Reliance Industries)等大型企业进入印度支离破碎的零售业。信实工业计划投资50亿-70亿美元，建立一个从农场到消费者的供应链。

Small traders have been holding regular protests against the inroads being made into the fragmented retail sector by big business houses such as Reliance Industries, which plans a $5bn-7bn investment in a farm-to-fork supply chain.