Call to set up Maltese language authority ASAP

Lexicom Translation Services, which has been appointed an official supplier of translations, from and into Maltese, to the European Commission, has appealed to the government to ensure that the authority meant to oversee the development of the Maltese language is set up without delay.

Lexicom managing director Patrick Beacom said: "The translations industry in Malta is in its infancy and needs urgent guidance on many open orthography and terminology questions if it is to develop properly. The present state of affairs leaves a lot to be desired".

Mr Beacom was speaking during a reception at the Caraffa Stores, in Vittoriosa. The occasion was to celebrate the company's successful bid to be an official supplier of translations and to present certificates of merit to those translators who successfully completed six months of training with Lexicom.

Lexicom is a joint venture between Fenlex Corporate Services Ltd of Valletta and Inter-Com Translations Ltd of London, a translations company with an international client base and many years' experience as a supplier of translations to EU Institutions.

In his presentation speech, Mr Beacom said this was the culmination of one-and-a-half years of hard work for all involved. Since training started last November, 150 people have attended the six-month Lexicom course in EU-specific translations, meeting twice a week in five classes. "I believe that the main difference between Lexicom and its local competitors is the extent and quality of the training we organised," Mr Beacom said.

"An important element in the success of our course has been our excellent Maltese language trainers, Joe Felice Pace, Anthony Cardona, Immanuel Mifsud and Frans Sammut. A big thank you goes to all of them."

Before presenting certificates of merit to translators who successfully completed the Lexicom training course, Mr Beacom expressed special thanks to Joe Eynaud, course director of the translation and interpretation course at the University of Malta.

"Prof. Eynaud has been a source of support and encouragement to us over the past year. The Lexicom course was in no way meant to compete with the university's - if anything, to complement it. It was an honour for us to have made a small contribution by giving supplementary translation practice to a number of university students, who also attended the Lexicom course. We look forward to further fruitful cooperation with the university in the future."

By mid-July, Lexicom will have 105 certified translators ready to take on EU work. The rest will continue training after the summer break, with another 150 new people starting the course in autumn.