But there are so many people in the various ethnic groups who cannot understand English and know only their respective mother tongues. The proposed central translation bureau will be able to bridge this gap by providing official translation and interpreting services to enable the Government and its agencies to reach out to the non-English speaking population. It can work the same way as the Government's centralised information service under the Ministry of Information and the Arts. It will be able to pool manpower and other resources, centralise training and provide better career development for interpreters and translators. It will be the one-stop service centre for all translation and interpreting needs of the Government and its agencies.
Translation needs and workload vary from department to department.
Decentralised units with little or occasional translation needs may have one or no translator to do the job. This means that a translator may be under-utilised or that an agency may have to do without a translator. But the need is for more quality translators and interpreters. There are far too few professional translators and interpreters here although Singapore prides itself as a media hub and convention centre. There are only a handful of interpreters who are active in conferences.