Hi, George. This is Kristoff calling from Australia. It's about the contract negotiation for constructing the factory in Melbourne.[qh]
乔治你好，我是澳大利亚的克斯托夫。关于在墨尔本建造工厂的合同谈判问题。[qh]
Our client doesn't want to agree the date for the completion of the second stage, even though it was accepted when we put in our tender.[qh]
我们的客户对第二阶段完工日期存在异议，虽然投标的时候他们接受了这个日期。[qh]
We specified that we couldn't complete in less than six months. Now they're saying they want it brought forward a month.[qh]
我们指明我们无法在不到六个月的时间内完工。现在他们表示希望可以前提一个月。[qh]
This is a problem, because they want to put in a penalty clause which states that for every week we are late,[qh]
这存在问题，因为他们想加一条惩罚性条款—每推迟一周，[qh]
we have to pay three percent of the total cost. I can't agree to this at all. We're already using our best technical employees,[qh]
我们就需支付总成本3%的罚款。我完全不同意。我们已经使用了我们最好的技术人员，[qh]
and the only way we can complete in five months is if we use more unskilled staff right from the beginning,[qh]
要我们在五个月内完工，唯一的办法就是从一开始使用更加不熟练的员工，[qh]
which'll mean a substantial investment which we hadn't budgeted for.[qh]
这将意味着我们预算又多了一项巨大的投资。[qh]
There's one incentive, however; instead of the usual bonus,[qh]
但如果我们可以满足他们新提出的截止日期，[qh]
we'll be awarded the contract for their next project if we can meet their new deadline.[qh]
那么会有一个激励性奖励—我们将获得他们下一个项目。[qh]