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40 The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume III - 2011 40 Development of the National Language Policy (2006-2010) Committee to Draft the National Language Policy The Royal Institute of Thailand 3.6.1 Scope This subcommittee was responsible for researching the translation industry in Thailand, working with translators, interpreters, government officials, and businesses to investigate the current situation and determine future directions. 3.6.2 Findings The translation industry in Thailand is completely unregulated. Anyone, regardless of training or knowledge, can open a translation businessfias seen by the many çTranslation to All Languagesé signboards on Sukhumvit Road. This is frustrating to the true translation professionals, who feel that their industry would benefit from more regulations and standards. In addition, foreign embassies have expressed concern about the low quality of translated documents they receive. English-Thai/Thai-English interpretation and translation are most common. Nonetheless, other languages are gaining in importance. Bangkok has positioned itself as a global health hub, resulting in hundreds of thousands of çmedical tourismé patients from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, resulting in new opportunities for Arabic-speaking Thai Muslims and other minority groups. Thousands of Thai-German marriages have created a growing need for translation between those languages. Thailand is also a global center for MICEfiMeetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions. This creates a need for unique translation pairs, such as English- Russian or Japanese-Chinese. Similarly, Bangkok is a major hub for agencies of the United Nations. 9 For large events involving languages other than Thai, businesses and United Nations agencies must çimporté temporary translators and interpreters. However, this is not due to a lack of local languages resources. While there may be few or no Thais able to translate between Chinese and Japanese or Russian and French, there is a large community of expatriates living in Thailand. Current labor regulations reserve çskilledé professions (a category which includes translators) for Thai nationals. Thus, there is an interest on the part of some businesses (particularly among computer-assisted localization firms working in multiple languages) in both changing labor laws for translators and implementing a system of translator 9 Reliable sources estimate that there are 3,000-4,000 United Nations staff based in Bangkok, overseeing work in over 40 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. 29-44_mac9 4/26/12, 8:31 PM 40