Suppliers in Malta who want to expand their business abroad may hit a brick wall if they do not understand the country’s regulations.

This is where translation of foreign legislation into Maltese would come in handy. A consortium is holding a workshop in Malta to understand local needs and look at the available information about the Maltese language.

The aim is to ease access to public services across language barriers. This European Language Resource Coordination consortium is organising such workshops in 30 countries, raising awareness about the relevance of language data held by public administrations for automated translation platforms.

One such platform is the European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility, or CEF.AT. It learns to translate from existing translations and is free for public services across Europe, but since it has mainly been trained on translations of EU legislation, it may not be well suited for the day-to-day needs of national public services.

Foreign suppliers are blocked because of language barriers

“The European Commission would like to lower language barriers throughout Europe. For this to happen, it must be sensitive to the particular conditions in different member states about translation and availability of data on languages,” said senior lecturer Mike Rosner, the organiser of the local workshop.

Citing an example in which automated translation could help, Mr Rosner noted suppliers in Malta expanding overseas might need to become familiar with local rules.

This could require the use of a public service in another member state for which ideally the answers are supplied in Maltese and not in the language of the foreign state.

“This is a scenario where automated translation could help, because it is not feasible for all such legislation to be translated by hand. The example also works the other way around: if a foreign supplier who does not speak English or Maltese wishes to provide services locally.

“Currently, this kind of business is blocked precisely because of unsurmountable language barriers,” he added.

The workshop will be held tomorrow at Dar l-Ewropa in Valletta, and more information is available on mike.rosner@um.edu.mt.