印度亞洲公路1號線今何在 Asian Highway One mired in muddy reality
An air-conditioner? A child’s Spider-Man costume? Chinese-made plastic flowers? A bag of dried fish or a bottle of French champagne? On a typical weekday morning scores of Indian shoppers are hunting for bargains just over the border in the Myanmar town of Namphalong. They can even pay in Indian rupees.
空調機？蜘蛛俠(Spider-Man)童裝？中國製造的塑料花？還是一袋乾魚或一瓶法國香檳？在一個典型的週末上午，大量印度顧客都會越過邊境，到緬甸的南帕隆鎮(Namphalong)去買便宜貨。他們甚至可以支付印度盧比。
Dozens of porters, pushing handcarts or balancing cardboard boxes on their heads, walk steadily into Moreh on the Indian side of the frontier in the north-eastern state of Manipur, laden with mangos, onions and coconuts.
數十名行李搬運工，推着手推車或頭頂紙箱(裏面都裝滿了芒果、洋蔥和椰子)，穩步走進邊境線印度一側的莫雷(Moreh)。莫雷位於印度東北部的曼尼普爾區(Manipur)。
The retail trade on foot is vigorous enough, but it is all a long way from the Indian vision of turning Moreh into a modern commercial road and rail gateway to east Asia.
這種依靠步行的零售貿易很有活力，但它距離印度的目標——把莫雷打造成東亞現代化商業的公路鐵路門戶——還有很大差距。
Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, has tried to inject new vigour into the plan by rebranding New Delhi’s old “Look East” policy as “Act East”. The winding, potholed road uphill from the Manipuri capital Imphal to the border with Myanmar has been labelled hopefully with green and white AH1 signs, denoting the theoretical Asian Highway One linking Istanbul to Tokyo via Kolkata and Bangkok.
印度總理納倫德拉莫迪(Narendra Modi)曾嘗試爲該方案注入新的活力，把新德里方面舊有的“向東看”(Look East)政策重新定位爲“向東行動”(Act East)政策。這條由曼尼普爾區首府英帕爾(Imphal)通向印緬邊境、蜿蜒曲折、崎嶇不同的上坡道路，已被滿懷希望地掛上了綠白相間的“AH1”標誌。AH1是指理論上的從伊斯坦布爾經由加爾各答和曼谷通往東京的亞洲公路1號線。
Yet the slow pace of road and railway building, the prohibition of cross-border truck traffic, rebel insurgencies, the obstacle course of intrusive military checkpoints in India and the reluctance of the governments on either side of the frontier to embrace free trade has left locals sceptical about the future.
不過，公路鐵路建設的步伐緩慢、跨境卡車交通被禁、叛亂迭起、印度境內突兀的軍事檢查點構成的交通障礙路段，以及兩國政府不願接受自由貿易，都令當地人對未來貿易增長感到懷疑。
“Act East or Look East — it’s a bluff,” says Amar Yumnam, economics professor at Manipur University, who compares India unfavourably with China when it comes to the building of roads and railways for trading with its neighbours. He gives credit to Mr Modi for talking to India’s neighbours about investment and development, but says the message has yet to percolate down to the relevant bureaucrats.
“不管向東看還是向東行動，那都是虛張聲勢，”曼尼普爾大學(Manipur University)經濟學教授阿馬爾鄠納姆(Amar Yumnam)說。談到建設公路鐵路、促進與鄰國貿易問題上，雲納姆認爲印度比不上中國。他稱讚莫迪與鄰國進行投資與開發談判，但表示，這一信息還沒有向下傳遞到相關官員那裏。
“In 1994, a [Myanmar-India] border trade agreement was signed. The same day they signed a security agreement, and that agreement has been more prominent. In Moreh there’s no visibility of any kind of infrastructure...戠甀琀 you’ll face all the inconveniences related to security.”
“1994年簽署了（緬印）邊境貿易協議。同一天，他們還簽署了一項安全協議，安全協議一直更重要。在莫雷，我們根本看不到任何種類的基礎設施……但你將承受跟安全相關的所有不便利之處。”
Like Bangladesh, which now separates India’s north-eastern states from the rest of the subcontinent, India and Myanmar (then Burma) were both part of the British Raj. But mountainous terrain and half a century of military dictatorship in Myanmar from 1962 left the country largely cut off from its Indian neighbour to the west. Bilateral trade has recently increased to reach more than $2bn a year, but only about 1 per cent of that is by land.
就像把印度東北部各邦跟南亞次大陸分隔開來的孟加拉國一樣，印度與緬甸也都曾是英屬印度的組成部分。但多山地形，加上緬甸從1962年以來半個世紀的軍事獨裁，使得緬甸基本上跟西面的鄰國印度斷絕了來往。近來緬印雙邊貿易有所增加，年貿易額突破了20億美元，但其中僅有約1%是通過陸路實現的。
“Indo-Myanmar trade is not up to the mark,” says Mahesh Singh, an Indian customs inspector at the Moreh border. “Only betel nut is imported, and in exchange wheat flour and bleach are exported — mainly these three items.”
“目前印緬貿易達不到標準，”莫雷邊境的印度海關檢查員馬赫什鬠格(Mahesh Singh)說。“印度只進口檳榔果，出口小麥面和漂白劑——主要就這三種物品。”
With border trade restricted to a barter system — rather than money — for just 62 approved items, and exclusively for domestic products made either in Myanmar or India, it is no surprise that only about 30 truckloads of goods a month are officially crossing the frontier.
由於邊境貿易僅限於易貨貿易——而不使用貨幣——僅針對62種獲批物品，並且僅限於緬甸或印度境內生產的物品，所以每個月只有約30輛卡車的貨物跨過邊境，也就不足爲怪了。
Asked whether Mr Modi’s “Act East” drive has galvanised trade, one surprised customs officer responds as he stamps more papers: “But that’s just government policy. We just do our work.”
在被問及莫迪的“向東行動”計劃是否促進了貿易時，一名吃驚的海關官員一邊在更多文件上蓋章，一邊回答：“但那只是政府的政策。我們只做我們的事。”
