The National Translation Committee (NTC) was formed by the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) on 1 March 2014, to oversee short-term and long-term plans to enhance whole-of-government translation capabilities and see to improvements across the industry. It is a collaborative effort involving the public, private and people sectors to address translation-related issues.

The NTC is made up of members from the media, academia, the translation industry, as well as government representatives. The committee is chaired by Mr Tan Kiat How, Minister of State for Ministry of Communications and Information, and Ministry of National Development.

The NTC also works alongside three Resource Panels (RP), namely the Chinese RP, Malay RP and Tamil RP. The resource panels will provide expert advice on specific translation problems.

For more information on the NTC, please visit this page.

Over the years, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) has introduced various initiatives to raise translation standards in Singapore. With an increasingly diverse and complex communications landscape, and the proliferation of alternative and competing voices in the online sphere, there is a need for the Government to get its voice heard, by pushing out official information and debunking falsehoods in a timely and effective manner. This reinforces the need for translation of key government communications materials.

This growing translation demand forms the basis of the establishment of a Centre of Excellence (CoEx) for Translation within MCI. The aim is to further strengthen MCI’s in-house translation capabilities and partnerships, which includes working with a pool of experienced translators attuned to Singapore’s social and cultural norms, to help ensure translations produced suit the local context. Other functions under the CoEx include facilitating technological development, policymaking, operations and enforcement as well as providing support to the National Translation Committee (NTC) and the respective language Resource Panels (RP).