By Patrick O’Donnell
China.org.cn staff reporter in Shanghai

Benny H. Hoed, executive council member of the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs and professor of linguistics at Universitas Indonesia, spoke with China.org.cn for a few minutes about the XVIII FIT World Congress and the state of translation in Indonesia.

"This is a very important event, important in the sense that Asia has taken the initiative to hold this kind of conference," he said. "FIT has been, for a long time, a European-centered association. Now I think it becomes more international."

Hoed said he thought his translation organization, the Association of Indonesian Translators, would be happy to build links with translation associations in China and that the congress would provide good opportunity to promote this type of cooperation.

His organization started in the year 2000 and its goal is to promote the quality of translation in Indonesia. The group has workshops once every three months where experts are invited to discuss professional problems and issues. The organization is funded by contributions from members. It is also very selective, with only 200 members.

Hoed said he hopes that the XVIII Congress continues with the trend of including countries from around the world.

"I think what we would like to see from this congress is that there will be an internationalization of FIT," he said. "So that FIT becomes a world, really a world, association or world federation of translators."

(China.org.cn August 2, 2008)