With the coming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the 18th FIT (International Federation of Translators) World Congress in 2008 and the World Expo in 2010 -- both to be held in Shanghai, China is expected to see a boom in the demand for translation services over the next few years.

 

Designed to allow for talks on ways of regulating the translation services market and exploring opportunities for global cooperation, China International Forum on the Translation Industry, sponsored jointly by the Translators Association of China (TAC) and Tongji University, opened Sunday morning in Shanghai.

 

The forum, entitled “Competitiveness of China’s Translation Industry Versus Globalization”, attracted more than 200 entrepreneurs from home and abroad engaged in translation work to share their success stories in internationalizing their businesses and increasing competitiveness.

 

“Self-discipline and effective market management are essential to sustained development of China’s translation industry,” TAC President Liu Xiliang said at the forum.

 

Liu, a well-known Spanish translator, proposed building up a large contingent of professional personnel and qualified teachers and enhancing the protection of the rights and interests of translators and interpreters.

 

Basing on a comprehensive and in-depth investigation of the market, Liu said, “Both national standards and appraisal systems for translation and interpretation should be formulated or perfected to promote the development of the industry.”

 

In 2003, the Ministry of Personnel entrusted China International Publishing Group to organize and implement the China Aptitude Test for Translators and Interpreters (CATTI). Breaking with the conventional prerequisites for appraisal such as educational records, the group regards professional competence and merit -- rather than seniority -- as important.

 

To build a modern translation service industry, Wu Xizeng, general manager of China Translation and Publishing Corporation, said, “We should regulate the management of the market, provide specialized and professional services, make full use of information technology, integrate available resources and seek strengthened international cooperation so as to achieve common development and a win-win result.”

 

Sheryl Hinkkanen, FIT secretary-general, observed that the structure of the translation sector has undergone fundamental changes worldwide at a very rapid pace.

 

Since the early 1990s, it had evolved from individual national markets largely based on direct links in the service-provision chain into “a global market involving a wide range of computerized tools, international competition and long, often multinational, service-provision chains,” she said.

 

Citing the newly formulated draft European standard for translation services, Hinkkanen said standardization was one response to the changed operating environment.

 

“Standards provide guidelines that will help the translation sector harmonize its activities,” she said. “They also help clients determine service quality. First came national standards and the current development is towards a broader approach.”

 

The two-day forum, China’s first top-level international gathering of those involved in the translation industry, also includes four parallel sessions: translation service, translation in publishing, translation and technology, and translation training.

 

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Shao Da, May 28, 2006)