As Yan Zhen reports in an article in the Shanghai Daily, China is about to set up a translation assessment panel to supervise the quality of translation work. During the First China International Forum on Translation Industry at Tongji University the country also announced plans to regulate the market, "which has long been plagued by disorder and unfair competition, industry management officials said in Shanghai yesterday," the article informs.

According to the newspaper the panel will be organized by the Translation Association of China and consist of academic staff , veteran translators and other organizational professionals with years of translation theory studies and practice. The panels main task will be to assess the quality of translation products, translation training institutes and programs. The board will also evaluate and possibly certify translation service providers' qualifications according to China's existing translation industry standards and regulations.

They board will not be able to close down companies but can send out public warnings to businesses and consumers about translation companies that aren't doing quality work and inform government officials and market watchdogs of their findings.

China currently has more than 3,000 registered translation companies, which reported revenues of 20 billion yuan (US$ 2.5 billion) last year, up from 11 billion yuan in 2003. More than 60,000 translators are employed by professional organizations, while several more hundreds of thousands of translators work part time or on a freelance basis.

source: Shanghai Daily