[ti:International Investors Concerned About Ethiopia ] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]Ethiopia has invested billions of dollars to build new dams, [00:06.72]railways, roads and industrial centers for more than 10 years. [00:13.88]The goal has been to change the mainly agricultural nation [00:19.32]into a manufacturing power. [00:22.24]In 2017, the African nation had the world's fastest-growing economy. [00:30.28]A year later, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office, [00:35.52]promising to loosen the state's control on the economy. [00:40.64]But for the past two years, Ethiopia has faced several problems. [00:47.64]These include ethnic clashes, floods, swarms of insects [00:53.60]and coronavirus restrictions. [00:56.76]Recent fighting, which started in early November, [01:01.52]has led many international investors [01:05.28]to become even more concerned about the country. [01:09.56]When Bangladeshi textile company DBL [01:14.08]came to Ethiopia two years ago, [01:17.52]the African nation was the clothing industry's bright new area. [01:23.44]It had a lot of workers and a government [01:27.64]that wanted to bring in companies [01:30.28]with tax breaks and cheap loans. [01:33.64]Last month, as fighting went on in the northern Tigray region, [01:39.76]DBL's compound was hit by an explosion [01:44.20]that broke the factory's windows. [01:47.24]"All we could do was to pray out loud," said Adbul Waseq, [01:52.32]an official at the company, which makes clothes mainly [01:56.68]for Swedish clothing company H&M. [02:00.52]It is one of at least three foreign clothes makers [02:04.56]to have suspended operations in Tigray. [02:08.20]"We could have died," Waseq told Reuters. [02:12.88]Any concern by investors could create problems for Ethiopia. [02:19.24]The country's manufacturing export push [02:23.16]is not yet bringing in enough foreign money [02:26.80]to pay for its imports or keep up with rising debt costs. [02:32.80]Before the coronavirus health crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) [02:39.40]had warned that Ethiopia was at high risk of debt problems. [02:45.24]But Abiy's government said that Ethiopia was [02:49.60]pushing ahead with reforms that will help build a modern economy. [02:55.76]Ethiopia is a small textiles producer with exports of just $94 million in 2016. [03:06.16]In comparison, Vietnam had $29 billion [03:11.40]and China $253 billion in the same year, World Bank trade data showed. [03:20.28]Ethiopia's top exports are agricultural, such as coffee, [03:25.84]tea, spices, oil seeds, plants and flowers. [03:31.60]But the country's push into the textile industry [03:36.48]has been a sign of its hope to increase manufacturing. [03:41.88]As fighting neared Tigray's regional capital, Mekelle, [03:46.64]textile companies began closing factories and pulling out workers. [03:52.64]"It seemed that the conflict was getting closer to the city, [03:57.24]and our worry was that we wouldn't be able to leave," [04:01.16]said Cristiano Frati to an Italian newspaper. [04:05.76]Frati was evacuated from a factory [04:09.84]run by Italian company Calzedonia. [04:13.32]DBL has also flown its foreign workers out of Ethiopia. [04:19.16]"Everything has become uncertain," [04:22.28]its director M.A. Jabbar said. [04:25.76]"When will the war end?" [04:29.16]Even before the recent conflict, [04:31.72]insurance companies had stopped giving support [04:35.24]beyond Ethiopia's northern Amhara area [04:39.04]and the federal capital Addis Ababa. [04:42.80]An adviser who works with foreign companies told Reuters, [04:47.40]"Ethiopia is not a pretty picture right now." [04:52.12]I'm John Russell. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM