Despite the growing popularity of foreign language study throughout all age groups, China still suffers from a major lack of competent translators and interpreters.

    The industry employs around 500,000 people, including retirees,college students and returnees from overseas universities who work as freelancers, but only 60,000 professional translators can produce accurate translations from Chinese into a foreign language,according to Wang Xin, an official with the Training Center of China International Publishing Group.

    "Even that is still not enough to meet China's growing demand for exchanges with other countries," she told an open lecture on the "cultural aspects of translation", given by Prof. Wang Ruojin of Beijing Foreign Studies University on Saturday.

    The lecture, sponsored by the training center and the National Library of China, attracted several hundred people who wanted to listen to the professor's experiences of being a former interpreter for the United Nations.

    Besides the lack of professionals, China's translation industry also needs better management.

    China presently has nearly 3,000 registered translation firms with more than 400 in Beijing alone, according to the Translators Association of China. But many of them are "briefcase companies" with only a telephone, a computer and one or two full-time employees. The part-time translators and interpreters they hire are not always qualified.

    "Unless the problems are tackled properly, it will become a major obstacle to China's economic development," said Wang Xin, adding "China may lose access to a huge amount of valuable information if no accurate and timely translation is given, particularly with regard to the state-of-the-art economic, scientific and technological updates from the rest of the world."

    Besides, Chinese companies are facing worldwide customers and competitors, she said. "The accuracy and efficiency in translationare essential in the globalization drive."

    China's Ministry of Education has made English a compulsory course in most elementary schools, and most high-school graduates are literate in at least one foreign language.

    The country also launched a national translation testing systemin 2003, through which thousands of candidates have been licensed as professional translators and interpreters.

    Wang said her organization has launched monthly or biweekly lectures since the start of this year to help more people learn foreign languages and translation.

    She said the next lecture is scheduled for March 5, to be givenby noted translator Lin Wusun who translated many Chinese classics into English, including the Art of War of Sun Wu, a military strategist in late Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC).