马云第二次到访非洲：出资1000万美元支持非洲企业家（双语）

　　Jack Ma regrets that it took him this long to visit Africa, but he’s making up for it by supporting young African entrepreneurs.

　　马云后悔自己过了这么久才到访非洲，不过他正通过支持年轻的非洲企业家做出弥补。

　　Ma visited Africa for the first time in 2017, and returned a year later with a plan. The Alibaba founder was in Johannesburg this week, officially launching the Netpreneur prize, a $10 million competition for African tech innovators. Administered through Ma’s foundation, the prize is meant to “further [Africa’s] digital economy through local entrepreneurship.”

　　2017年，马云第一次来非洲，一年后，马云带着全新的计划回归：这位阿里巴巴的创始人本周在约翰内斯堡正式启动了“非洲互联网青年创业基金”，出资1000万美元支持非洲的科技创新。该基金由马云公益基金会管理，旨在“通过支持当地企业家精神来促进(非洲的)数字经济发展”。

　　From next year, the competition will host an annual pitching session (pdf), awarding $1 million in prize money over ten years. Even Ma admits, that compared to similar programs, $10 million doesn’t seem like much, but the significance of the Netpreneurs program is that it highlights the parallels between Africa and China.

　　从明年开始，未来10年内，每年都会拿出100万表彰选拔出来的创业者。正如马云坦言，相比其他一些类似的项目，100万看起来并不是个大数目，可是“非洲互联网青年创业基金”的意义就是在于它突出了非洲和中国的相似之处。

　　To inspire the young entrepreneurs in the room, Ma drew on his own story of trying to launch an e-commerce company on achingly slow bandwidth in China 19 years ago. He recalled trying to register an internet company when the concept itself seemed unfathomable. Looking at Africa today, he sees a similar environment.

　　为了激励房间里的年轻企业家，马云讲述了自己19年前试图在中国开创电子商务公司的痛苦缓慢历程。他回忆起注册互联网公司时，这个业务在当时的中国看来还难以理解。而在今天的非洲，他看到了类似的发展环境。

　　“This is where I see Africa, full of problems, but full of opportunities,” Ma said in an auditorium at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was the keynote speaker.

　　马云在威特沃特斯兰大学发表演讲时说：“这就是我眼中的非洲，充满了各种各样的问题，但同样的也充满了发展的机遇。”

　　China’s investment in Africa has long invited debate on the motivations of either side’s embrace of the other. Books, documentaries and thousands of think-pieces have been produced, scrutinizing the factors in this relationship, from raw materials to few regulations, and just who gets to benefit. There are no easy answers, but Ma’s speech captured what is perhaps the simplest factor encouraging this relationship: that Africa could be what China is today.

　　中国在非洲的投资动机长期以来引发了许多争论。书籍、纪录片和数以千计的评论已经问世，以仔细审视这一关系中的因素，从原材料到极少的规则，以及谁会从中受益。没有简单的答案，但马云的演讲抓住了可能是鼓励这种关系的最简单的因素：非洲有可能是今天的中国。

　　Alibaba’s rise signifies China’s, and the potential of African entrepreneurs. As a teacher, Ma founded Alibaba in a cramped apartment in Hangzhou. They couldn’t find engineers and they could barely raise capital, Ma told the crowd. Researchers writing the Alibaba case study dismissed the company when comparing it to the likes of eBay.

　　阿里巴巴的崛起也标志着中国和非洲企业家的潜力。教师出身的马云在杭州的一间狭小的公寓里创办了阿里巴巴，在创办之初，他们很难找到工程师，也缺乏资金支持，马云在演讲时说。而研究人员在撰写阿里巴巴的报告时，将其与eBay做对比，甚至并不看好阿里巴巴的发展。

　　Of course, Alibaba’s growth wasn’t as simple as Ma’s motivation suggests, but it tells the story of a digital company built in an adverse environment, not unlike Africa’s nascent digital economy today. With the right vision and hard work, said Ma, you could have ten Alibabas in Africa: “Doesn’t have to be $500 billion, $50 billion is fine.”

　　当然，阿里巴巴的发展并不像马云所讲的那么简单，但仍然代表了那些在艰苦环境中成长的企业，而这和目前非洲的数字经济的发展并没有什么不同。马云说，有正确的愿景，并努力工作，非洲可以产生十个阿里巴巴。“不需要5000亿美元，500亿美元就可以了。”

　　“This continent is very simple, if you’ve been to Europe you know how complicated it is, they want too much,” Ma said, referring to the developed world’s laws and regulations. “Here you have nothing to change.”

　　“非洲大陆很单纯，如果你去过欧洲，你就会知道它有多么复杂，他们想要的太多了，”马云说，并提及发达国家的法律和法规。“这里你不需要改变什么。”

　　The continent’s most important resource is its young people, which is why Ma was eager to share that he’d called South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa to encourage him to support young entrepreneurs. Still, waiting for the government to create the perfect business environment would be a waste of time. “We startups,” Ma said without irony, just need an open environment and trust to create jobs. Degrees from schools like Harvard and MIT weren’t necessary either: “Those are the white collar guys, they’ll never be entrepreneurs,” Ma said to rousing applause.

　　非洲最为重要的资源就是年轻人，这也是为什么马云渴望分享他称之为南非总统西里尔.拉马福萨鼓励他支持年轻企业家。不过，等待政府创造完美的商业环境将是浪费时间。马云不带讽刺的说，“我们初创公司，只需要一个开放的环境和充分的信任，哈佛和麻省理工学院的文凭也不是必要条件。那些人是白领，他们永远不会成为企业家。”马在热烈的掌声中说。

　　And in a few years, when African businesses have achieved this potential Ma so believes in, Alibaba will be there. All they’d need is a small 0.1% he said, his speech ending to a standing ovation.

　　若干年后，当非洲企业实现了这一潜力的时候，马云相信，阿里巴巴也将在那里。他所需要的只是一个小的0.1%，演讲结束，现场观众都起立鼓掌。