底特律汽车制造在挣扎 外国车厂却蓬勃发展

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The ailing American automakers：Tomorrow Chrysler will kick off a new campaign. It's a print and television ad campaign touting itself as a new car company, and planning up its alliance with FIAT. GM, meanwhile is getting prepared for a new round of job-cuts by the end of the month.

 But while Detroit has been hurting, parts of the South are actually booming. Thanks in part to foreign automakers. Here is ABC Steve Osansami.

Welcome to West Point, the small Georgia city near the Alabama border. It's one of those country towns where main street is always a few blocks away and just a few blocks among. And despite the recession, they are having good times. A new KIA auto plant is opening down the road. The foreign automaker and its suppliers are bringing in as many as 20,000 jobs in a town with only 4,000 residents.

"They hired me." Margret McManners was out of work for more than a year. She was hired by a KIA supplier last month. "What was that day like?" "That was great."
Since the announcement, new restaurants have opened. The shoe store is selling.
The recession has... has been non-existent in West Point Georgia.

And the first new vehicle won't roll off the assembly line for another several months.
"Economic impact on the area has been huge." "How are you?"  Drew Ferguson is the town's dentist and the Mayor. He said the excitement here is far away from the troubles of Detroit. "The psychological impact on this area has been huge."

None of these came cheaply. State and county leaders spent more than 400 million dollars in tax incentives to bring the plant home. Several other Asian and European carmakers have received the same Southern hospitality and have built factories in seven southern states.

Many residents here have little sympathy for American automakers up north and you get that not just here, but in many other southern towns where mostly foreign automakers have set up shop and are thriving.

"I think they get in that mess, so they kind of need to get out of the mess on their own."
"There is no way that the American car, automakers can compete when they haven't paid the retirement packages and the Union package that they have."
The foreign auto factory here is the only one scheduled to open in the US this year. And Margret McManners says it's a blessing.
If the KIA plant weren’t here?

"There everybody would, you know, probably sit around and cry and boohoo.“
Instead, they are celebrating.
For Good Morning Americas, Steve Osansami, ABC news, West Point, Georgia.

Glossary

1.      FIAT                                = Fabbrica Italiana Automobile Torino 菲亚特汽车公司[意]  

2.      KIA                                  东风悦达起亚 KIA   

3.      supplier                               n.供应者, 补充者; 供应货物等的人或商店    

4.      non-existent                           adj.不存在的        

5.      roll off                                  (车辆)出发; (摄影机)开始行动 

6.      the assembly line                       n.(工厂产品的)装配线            

7.      tax incentive                              税收鼓励     

8.      set up shop                             v.开店 开业     

9.      retirement packages                     退休方案/政策              

10.  Union package                           公会方案/政策        

11.  boohoo                                 n.哇哇哭声v.号泣