To tap into the increasing demand in the Chinese market, IELTS, the company that runs an international test for English-language proficiency, will increase the number of its exams in the country.

"We are going to increase the frequency of IELTS in China this year," James Shipton, the IELTS director of examination services, said yesterday at a press conference.

He said IELTS decided to increase the number of test dates from 33 last year to 46 this year.

It will also soon add three more examination sites to the current 27 nationwide.

China has the largest number of candidates currently taking the IELTS test. Figures show that more than 20 percent of the 1 million people taking the test were from China.

More than 210,000 people in China took the IELTS test last year, an increase of 60 percent from the previous year.

Michael Milanovic, chief executive of Cambridge ESOL, said that the IELTS test will soon be available online.

People will be able to download the test papers in advance to save time, he said.

However, he did not give a date when the online test will be available in China.

The system is currently in the development stage, he said.

The decision to go online is due to a growing number of requests from Chinese students, he said.

(China Daily April 23, 2008)