【全非资讯·南部非洲】Lesotho: Stitching Lesotho into the Global Economy

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一个小国如何通过贸易、纪律和数千名女性的辛勤劳作，成为非洲顶尖的服装出口国之一\n\n每周三上午7点整，莱索托贸易和工业部的会议室大门准时关闭。迟到者只能留在门外。\n\n这里没有冗长的发言或官僚主义的借口。圆桌旁坐着贸易大臣、常务秘书、各司局长、公用事业高管、移民官员、银行家、工厂主以及工会代表。每周一个小时，政治让位于解决问题，每一场讨论都围绕着一个核心问题：是什么在阻碍莱索托工厂的发展？\n\n“我们有一条铁律，”前贸易大臣Mpho Malie回忆道，“会议一旦开始，任何人不得入内，因为那会打断我们的节奏。那间会议室就是一个致力于发展莱索托工业的作战室。”\n\n在新旧世纪交替之际，内陆国家莱索托国内市场狭小，经济很大程度上依赖传统农业、侨汇和政府就业。然而据Malie透露，短短几年内，该国的纺织和服装从业人员从约1.7万人激增至约5.4万人，服装业也一跃成为该国最大的私营雇主和最大的创汇产业之一。\n\n催化剂是《非洲增长与机遇法案》（AGOA），该法案允许符合条件的非洲国家享有免关税进入美国市场的准入资格。但Malie认为，仅凭AGOA并未改变莱索托：“AGOA创造了机遇。我们打造了体制。”\n\n正是这一体制改变了数千名巴索托女性的命运，她们或许从未听说过AGOA，但其生计却因此紧密相连。

中文导读

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原文原文 / Original Text

How a small country used trade, discipline and the hard work of thousands of women to become one of Africa's top garment exporters

Every Wednesday morning at precisely 7:00, the Ministry of Trade and Industries' boardroom doors closed. Anyone arriving late stayed outside.

There were no lengthy speeches or bureaucratic excuses. Around the table sat the minister of trade, permanent secretary, directors, utility executives, immigration officials, bankers, factory owners and trade union representatives. For one hour every week, politics gave way to problem-solving with every discussion centred on one question: What was preventing Lesotho's factories from growing?

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"There was one rule," recalls former Trade Minister Mpho Malie. "Once the meeting started, nobody was allowed in because they would disrupt us. That boardroom was a war room of intention to grow Lesotho's industries."

At the turn of the millennium, landlocked Lesotho had a small domestic market and an economy largely dependent on subsistence farming, remittances and government employment. Yet within a few years, its textile and apparel workforce grew from about 17,000 to around 54,000 workers, according to Malie, while garments became the country's largest private employer and one of its biggest export earners.

The catalyst was the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which granted qualifying African countries duty-free access to the United States market. But Malie argues AGOA alone did not transform Lesotho: "AGOA created the opportunity. We created the system."

That system changed the lives of thousands of Basotho women who had never heard of AGOA but whose livelihoods came to depend on it.

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来源：AllAfrica (https://allafrica.com/)
原文链接：https://allafrica.com/stories/202607230472.html
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