Speech by SMS Tan Kiat How at the National Translation Committee 10th Anniversary Conference

Opening Remarks by NTC Chairperson, Senior Minister of State Tan Kiat How at the National Translation Committee (NTC) 10th Anniversary Conference on 15 Nov 2024

Members of the National Translation Committee and Language Resource Panels,

Esteemed speakers,

Members of our local translation fraternity,

Agency partners,

Citizen Translators,

Students,

Distinguished guests,

1. A very good morning to all. I am very happy to join everyone at today’s Conference. The National Translation Committee, or NTC is marking its 10th anniversary this year.

2. Formed in 2014, the NTC was tasked with addressing several translation issues. Chief among them was the need to raise translation standards across the public service. This was critical to ensure that government communication could effectively reach all Singaporeans, including all citizens who were not proficient in English.

3. First, it was crucial to establish consistency in government translations. This included standardisation of translated terms and ensuring that our vernacular languages reflected the nuances and context unique to our local communities.

4. Beyond that, the public sector needed access to quality translation services to make sure that government communications in our vernacular languages was accessible and effective.

5. Through raising expectations for quality translations, we aimed to catalyse a virtuous cycle of raising translation standards in the industry and nurturing a steady pipeline of translation talent.

6. From the outset, the Government recognised that it could not achieve these objectives by ourselves. The NTC was therefore formed as a collaborative effort, bringing together experts, practitioners and enthusiasts across the public, private, and people sectors.

7. NTC tapped into the knowledge and networks of those who care deeply about our official languages, nurturing a sense of community ownership over the quality and future of translation in Singapore.

Ten Years of Progress

8. In the past decade, the NTC has made good progress towards achieving its objectives. Let me highlight a few key milestones:

9. First, on the technology front – to tackle inconsistencies in government translations, NTC launched the Government Terms Translated (GTT) repository in 2015. GTT now hosts standardised translations of over 7,000 policy-related terms in Singapore’s four official languages, serving as a vital resource for government agencies, the media, schools, and the public.

10.Through the GTT web portal, official translations of placenames, agencies, programmes from across the whole of government are now aggregated in one place, providing easy access to the public.

11. Second, the Translation Talent Development Scheme (TTDS) and the Information Service (Translation) Scholarship were introduced to groom and develop the next generation of translation professionals. Through these initiatives, the NTC has to-date supported 40 working professionals and 14 students keen on pursuing a career in translation.

12. One such professional is Nur-El-Hudaa Jaffar, an award-winning author and translator. She received the TTDS Award back in 2019 to pursue a Malay Language and Translation course at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. She was able to apply the skills learnt, and her works have garnered numerous awards, including the Mastera Prize for poetry translation. Nur-El-Hudaa is now also a member of our National Translation Committee, contributing and paying forward for generations of translation talent. So please give a round of applause to her. If you would like to upgrade yourself as a professional translator, I encourage you to apply for the TTDS.

13. Third, the Period Contract and Framework Agreement (PCFA) for Translation Services was rolled out to provide the public service with access to pre-evaluated translation service providers. This not only augmented government agencies’ in-house translation capabilities but also ensured quality communications materials could be made available in vernacular languages, particularly during times of national crisis as we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

14. The first edition of PCFA was launched in 2015 with 13 vendors offering translation and vetting services in all four official languages. Subsequent editions saw the scope of the PCFA being fine-tuned to better meet the evolving needs of the public service.

15. The current fifth edition has a panel of over 30 vendors which offers translation, vetting and proofreading services with a range of different turnaround times. Since 2015, more than 60 government agencies have issued at least 6,700 purchase orders on the PCFA.

16. Finally, the Community-in-Translation Events Grant (CiTEG) was introduced in 2020 to provide funding support for community events aimed at promoting translation in Singapore. Between 2020 to June 2024, the grant has supported close to 60 events. I encourage like-minded partners from various sectors to tap on this grant to co-fund your translation-related events, whether they are in school- or community-settings. I always enjoy going to these events and speaking to people who are passionate about translation, especially our children and youths. So, please tap on this grant which is available, let us work together to generate awareness and support translation in your workplace, communities and schools.

17. As we celebrate these achievements over the last ten years, it is equally

important to look forward and consider how the NTC can build on its successes.

Three Pillars of Focus

18. During a workplan session in May this year, key stakeholders from across the translation ecosystem came together to chart the NTC’s course for the next decade. The group identified three key pillars to focus our efforts moving forward; namely: Community, Talent, and Technology. Let me touch on each of the pillars.

Pillar One: Community – Engaging the Public

19. On engaging the community, we recognise that translation is not solely the domain of experts. The NTC has long sought to engage the general public, encouraging more Singaporeans to take an interest in translation and participate actively in this space.

20. One platform is the Citizen Translators (CT) project which has mobilised volunteers from all walks of life to participate in translation activities and provide feedback on government translations. Our CTs have supported the vetting and proofreading of translated government communication materials, including for the Singpass and TraceTogether apps. They also report errant translations in public communications material such as signages, posters and banners.

21. Through the CT project, translation enthusiasts from across Singapore are able to meet like-minded individuals, interact with industry professionals, and volunteer their time and expertise. I would like to thank them, especially those who have contributed during the difficult time of COVID-19. Many of them, on their own volition, took their time and energy to support the translation of important government advisories and messages for the benefit of their communities, This enabled us to share important public messages - whether through WhatsApp channels, government media releases, or talks - to everyone, and in languages they are comfortable with. This was especially helpful for some of our seniors, who may not be familiar with English or digital technologies. But through these efforts, they could get timely information to safeguard the health of themselves and their family members. Our CTs played an important role, and many of them are here today, so please give them a round of applause.

22. The NTC has successfully recruited over 2,500 Citizen Translators who have contributed to translation efforts across Singapore. I am heartened that our Citizen Translators - ranging from ages 15 to 88, and across our three language communities - provide ground-up support for the government’s efforts to preserve and promote Singapore’s linguistic diversity.

23. I am also heartened to see our CTs bringing their friends and families along to our events. It is always a wonderful experience speaking to them. We have CTs such as:

a. M. Govindaraju, or better known as Captain Mago, is one of our most senior CTs who actively alerts the NTC on errant Tamil translations in public spaces. He eagerly takes on feedback assignments and has volunteered at National Day Parades for several years to proofread Tamil texts featured during the celebrations to spot for errors. I am happy to share that Captain Mago was also last year’s top CT contributor.

b. We also have Mr Adam Hidayat, who is a CNB officer. For our overseas guests, CNB stands for Central Narcotics Bureau. He is a CNB officer who has a passion for the Malay language. While his current job role does not involve translation, he regularly supports the NTC by vetting Malay language translation materials in his personal capacity.

c. Another good example are sisters Chin Ying En and Chin Ying Tong, who are currently studying at NUS and Saint Andrew’s Junior College respectively. They participate actively in digital and in-person engagement activities for CTs and in online CT Quizzes.

24. I would like to thank them and all our CTs for their active participation and contribution.

25. The CT project has expanded significantly since its inception. Today, CTs can get the most up-to-date translation-related content and information through our dedicated WhatsApp and Telegram channels. There are also exclusive WhatsApp and Telegram stickers for subscribers to download and use, and you will find a set of the same stickers in your goodie bags.

26. The CTs might also recognise the design on the tote bags from the batik motifs that they helped to colour during the Hari Raya Engagement Session this year.

27. Beginning next year, we will be further expanding the roles of our CTs to include opportunities to do onsite interpretation to help deliver government communications verbally at events such as roadshows.

28. PM Lawrence Wong said at this year’s National Day Rally that the government is committed to continue supporting the cultivation of bilingual capability among Singaporeans. Looking ahead, the NTC plans to deepen its community engagement by championing translation through supporting bilingualism. Translation builds on the foundation of bilingualism. If you do not have a strong bilingualism foundation, it would not be so easy to do translation.

29. So we are going upstream and will continue working with our partner agencies, including the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism (LKYFB), Ministry of Education (MOE) and National Library Board (NLB), as well as other government agencies and community partners like schools, media and grassroot organisations, and clan associations. Let us all work together to find ways to better support Singaporeans in seeing the learning and use of languages as a lifelong pursuit, and bilingualism as a part of our Singaporean identity.

30. By promoting both translation and bilingualism, we hope to galvanise the community to embrace their mother tongue languages and take ownership of our own linguistic heritages.

Pillar Two: Talent – Elevating Industry Standards

31. Next on talent development, while the NTC has made good progress in growing a pool of professional translators, we recognise a gap in establishing industry standards and certification in Singapore.

32. In some countries, translators are accredited by professional bodies to maintain a consistent benchmark for translation standards among industry professionals. This also provides assurance of translation quality for service buyers.

33.The NTC is committed to uplift Singapore’s translation industry and adopt international good practices. To achieve this, we will launch a Translation Industry Workgroup.

34. This workgroup will do a stocktake of Singapore’s translation landscape, review existing certification programmes and study the industry certification frameworks of our international counterparts for reference. At the end of this study, the workgroup will present its recommendations to NTC.

35. This workgroup will be co-led by NTC members – Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim, Member of Parliament for Choa Chu Kang GRC and Associate Professor Susan Xu from the Singapore University of Social Sciences. Mr Zhulkarnian and Prof Susan will involve relevant stakeholders in the workgroup. So let me thank Mr Zhul and Prof Susan for stepping up to undertake this task. Taking on this task on top of their existing heavy commitments at work, constituency, and other pursuits that they are embarking on really shows their passion in terms of growing this industry and supporting the young people in this industry. So thank you very much Zhul and Susan, and I look forward to discussing your recommendations at NTC.

Pillar Three: Technology – Embracing Digital Transformation

36. Moving to technology, the translation industry, like many others, is rapidly transforming, particularly greater digitalisation. Like the rest of sectors in Singapore, instead of fearing digitalisation, we have instead embraced the use of digital technologies to make our work more productive. Specific to this sector, technology has made the work for translators more productive and more accurate.

37. A notable example of this approach is SG Translate. SG Translate is a neural machine translation engine developed by the NTC Secretariat and A*Star to meet translation needs for government communications. Since its inception, SG Translate has become a valuable resource, enabling government agencies to reach non-English speaking communities in Singapore more effectively.

38. This engine was later expanded through SG Translate Together, a one-stop web portal which allows the public to access SG Translate as well as other translation resources. Since its launch, SGTT has attracted over 269,000 visits; and generated more than 20,000 average monthly translations. This reflects strong community engagement with translation technologies in Singapore.

39. While we have done well in leveraging digital technologies, we are now at a new phase of technological advancement with greater use of AI, especially generative AI.

40. While some had initially expressed apprehension that the rise of machine translation tools might signal the decline of human translation, the NTC takes a different view. Like in past generations of technological advancement, NTC sees this as an opportunity for us to leverage these technological tools to enhance rather than replace, human expertise.

41. Moving forward, the NTC intends to review SG Translate and plans to launch SG Translate 2.0. We envisage SG Translate 2.0 will leverage the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) to improve contextual accuracy and efficacy of translations. Users, from translation professionals to our CTs will benefit from better, faster and more accurate translations.

42. At the same time, we want to strengthen the ground-up character of SG Translate. We are not just investing more to ensure that we are keeping up with technology and making this technology accessible to more people in the community, we are doubling down on enhancing what is unique and precious about translation – the human and the community elements of it. We want to strengthen the ground-up characteristic of SG Translate, and are exploring an open-source and community-led approach that enables collaborative improvements through input from stakeholders across government, academia, and industry. We want the community to co-develop, co-own and co-drive the platform.

43. To do so, we have recently commissioned an independent market research company to conduct a short survey with our CTs', with all of you, regarding your experience using the SGTT web portal and the SG Translate machine translation engine. So I encourage all of you to take part in this survey, to give us your feedback and suggestions, so that we can take them onboard and make SG Translate 2.0 even better.

44. At the same time, as the field of technology evolves at an unprecedented pace, the NTC recognises the importance of staying ahead of these changes.

45. To guide this ambitious vision, I am pleased to announce the formation of a Translation Technology Advisory Panel. This panel will provide strategic insights on emerging trends, best practices, and technological development in translation technology.

46. The advisory panel will include Mr Chang Sau Sheong from GovTech, Dr Grandee Lee from the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), Dr William Tjhi from AI Singapore, all of whom bring significant expertise in technology and applied research.

47. The panel would help the NTC to stay abreast on the latest developments in the translation technology space. Input from the panel will also inform our strategy for encouraging wider adoption of translation technologies by the industry. The panel may also suggest ways for the NTC to make translation technologies more accessible to all Singaporeans.

48. Together, these initiatives will create a dynamic, collaborative environment that advances translation quality, enhances public accessibility, and supports Singapore’s multilingual society.

49. In conclusion, the NTC has accomplished much over the last ten years. As we enter the next chapter of our journey, we remain committed to further advancing translation excellence across the pillars of technology, talent development, and community engagement.

50. We have a packed programme lined up today. The conference today caps the year-long celebration and discussion on our 10th year anniversary. We have arranged a packed programme today and I’m very happy to see that it is very well attended. We have a suite of very distinguished speakers, keynote sessions, panel discussions and breakout sessions. I encourage all of you to participate actively. Your input, suggestions and ideas will help guide the NTC as it charts its direction for its next lap. Thank you and wishing everyone a fruitful day of learning.