TED演讲:非洲该怎样继续前进(4)

 Two, debt. In 1994, the debt-to-GDP ratio of African countries was 130 percent, and they didn't have fiscal¹ space. 第二件事，债务。在1994年，非洲国家债务对GDP的比例是130%，而且他们没有财政空间。

They couldn't use their resources to invest in their development because they were paying debt. 他们无法用自己的资源去投资于自己的发展，因为他们都在偿还债务。

There may be some of you in this room who worked to support African countries to get debt relief. 在这里也许有一部分人为支持非洲国家的债务减免努力过。

So private creditors², multilaterals and bilaterals came together  所以个人债权人、多边与双向债权人走到了一起

and decided³ to do the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and give debt relief. 决定发起“重债穷国倡议”并且给予债务减免。

So this debt relief in 2005 made the debt-to-GDP ratio fall down to about 30 percent, 因此在2005年，这项债务减免使（非洲国家）的债务/GDP比率下降到了30%，

and there was enough resources to try and reinvest.  这就有了足够的资源去尝试和再投资。

The third thing was loss-making enterprises.  第三件事是亏损企业。

Governments were involved in business which they had no business being in. 政府参与到了他们本无权参与的商业中。

And they were running businesses, they were making losses.  他们经营着企业，造成了亏损。

So some of these enterprises were restructured,  所以其中一些企业被重组，

commercialized, privatized or closed, and they became less of a burden on government. 商业化、私有化或者关闭，于是他们让政府的负担减轻了。

The fourth thing was a very interesting thing.  第四件事则非常有趣。

The telecoms revolution came, and African countries jumped on it. 电信革命来了，非洲国家抓住了这个机会。

In 2000, we had 11 million phone lines.  在2000年，我们已经拥有了1100万根电线。

Today, we have about 687 million mobile lines on the continent.  到了今天，我们在这片大陆上大概建造了6.87亿电线。

And this has enabled us to go, move forward with some mobile technology where Africa is actually leading. 这使得我们能够在某些非洲正领先的方面去推进一些移动技术。

In Kenya, the development of mobile money -- M-Pesa, which all of you have heard about -- 在肯尼亚，你们都听说过的移动支付--M-Pesa--正风靡全国。

it took some time for the world to notice that Africa was ahead in this particular technology. 世界花了一点时间才注意到，非洲在这项特殊技术上是领先的。

1 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

2 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。