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/ INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
New Council Oversight Group (NCOG)
(Resolution 1216) / Document NCOG-09/3-E
17 March 2005
English only
GENEVA — NINTH MEETING — (17 MARCH 2005)

DRAFT REPORT ON THE USE OF THE SIX OFFICIAL

AND WORKING LANGUAGES OF THE UNION

1)Background

Resolution 115 (Marrakesh, 2002) resolves to set 1 January 2005 as the date by which all ITU work will be carried out in the six official and working languages of the Union on an equal footing, and to abrogate Resolutions 62 (Kyoto, 1994) and 103 (Minneapolis, 1998) of the Plenipotentiary Conference with effect from 1 January 2005 (See C04/81 Annex A)

Council Resolution 1213, Annex B, Element 7, instructs the Secretary-General to present a plan for the transition to the use of the six official and working languages on an equal footing in all of its spheres of activity, along with a concrete assessment of the funding that will be required to implement the plan (See C03-ADD/27).

Mid-Term Recommendations 11 and 12 of the Group of Specialists respectively on interpretation services provided by the ITU and on translation services provided by the ITU were submitted to the 2003 session of the Council. The Council endorsed the report of the Group of Specialists to the 2004 session of the Council, including comments made by Councilors (See C04/29).

Council Resolution 1223 incorporates the above-mentioned Mid-Term Recommendations 11 and 12 of the Group of Specialists and gives instructions to the sectors and the Secretary-General on actions to be taken with respect to the use of the six official and working languages of the Union (See C04/81, Annex B).

2)Working methods and practices in relation with the use of languages in each of the three sectors

As mentioned in Council Resolution 1223, the Advisory Groups of the three Sectors gave advice on interim appropriate changes to working methods and practices in relation with the use of languages, in order to reduce the cost concerned, and to provide their proposals to the 2005 session of the Council (See C04/?? Reports RAG, TSAG and TDAG).

The three sectors generally supported the following basic principles, as given in Council Document C04/27, section 2:

  • “Interpretation in six languages will be provided exclusively in plenary meetings, as necessary and according to practices in force in the sectors, except in the case of conferences, assemblies and the Council, where six-language interpretation will also be provided in meetings of committees and working groups of the plenary - When the use of all the six languages is not required, as is the case for regional meetings and conferences, the costs are those of the required number of languages.”
  • Document production in six languages will be provided exclusively for contributions and plenary meeting documents, except in the case of conferences, assemblies and the Council, where six-language documentation will be provided also for documents to be examined by committees or working groups of the plenary;
  • Temporary documents (DT), limited distribution documents (DL) and information documents (INF) shall not be translated.
  • When the use of all the six languages is not required, as is the case for regional meetings and conferences, the costs are those of the required number of languages. Any documents submitted in any of the six languages will be translated into the working languages agreed to be utilized in the meetings.

In all three Sector advisory groups, the need for stricter compliance with the minimum document submission deadlines for translation has been recognized. In this respect, the Bureaux and the General Secretariat shall, where appropriate, include a notification to this effect in their invitation letters to meetings and conferences.

Also, as indicated in the above-mentioned reports of the three Advisory Groups, the Sectors decided to modify their working procedures in order to adjust interpretation services to the real Members’ needs, as well as to streamline document production requirements.

3)Identification of documents issued by the General Secretariat that shall be processed in six languages

The General Secretariat carried out a Study on documents proposed to be processed in the six official and working languages of the Union as at 1st January 2005 (See info doc ??? Use of languages for PP, Council and working groups of the Council).

4)Foreseen results in relation with interpretation and document production services provided by the ITU

The implementation of measures mentioned in sections 2 and 3 above, shall lead to an overall relative reduction of about [2%] in interpretation costs, [15%] in the volume of translation and [21%] in the volume of typing compared with costs initially identified in Council document C04/27. Considering budget limitations together with the 2006-2007 heavy workload, particularly in terms of conferences and meetings, these reductions will significantly facilitate the use of the six official and working languages of the Union on an equal basis.

5)Other proposals to be examined in coordination with the Directors of the Bureaux and new COG

5.1 Implications of GoS MTR’s 11 and 12

Studies undertaken by the Secretariat on the implications of Mid-Term Recommendations 11 and 12 of the group of Specialists lead to the following proposed appropriate actions (See info Doc ??? Report on GoS MTR’s 11&12):

a) It is proposed to implement basic principles given in Council Document C04/27. In addition, the Bureaux and the General Secretariat shall, where appropriate, include a reminder in their invitation letters to meetings and conferences, with a view to reducing the number of languages requiring interpretation services to be provided by ITU.

b) The present ITU remote interpretation resources shall be used for ITU meetings when appropriate and provided that it would not incur additional expenditures. Further studies shall continue in close coordination with other international organizations and IAMLADP (Inter-Agency Meeting on Language Arrangements, Documentation and Publications) and reports shall be provided to the Council in this respect.

c) The need for stricter compliance with the minimum document submission deadlines for translation has been recognized. In this respect, the Bureaux and the General Secretariat shall, where appropriate, include a notification to this effect in their invitation letters to meetings and conferences.

d) The use of remote translation is already standard ITU practice and shall be continued.

e) The concept of translation-on-demand similar to printing-on-demand, considering the costs incurred by such a service in addition to the technical difficulties it would generate, is not proposed to be implemented.

f) The amount of fixed internal capacity needed to provide translation services in six languages, in the light of ICT and outsourcing opportunities is already taken into consideration in the draft 2006-2007 budget. Such practice shall be continued for the next budget exercises.

5.2. Rationalization of language services and document processing activities

As of 11 November 2004, ITU Quickpub services have been merged into the Conferences Department in order to insure streamlining of the production of the concerned ITU-T and ITU-R recommendations. Appropriate outsourcing solutions shall be identified to cover the production of Quickpub publications in then six working and official languages of the Union. The related resources are already incorporated into the draft 2006-2007 biennial budget.

As far as the rationalization of the production of publications is concerned, the ITU Publications Policy Committee (IPPC) carried out a Study on the best ways and means to produce ITU publications in the appropriate languages of the Union, taking due consideration of the budget limitations (See info doc ???, Report of the IIPC).

As of 1st January 2005, the Arabic, Chinese and Russian translation services have been shifted into Arabic, Chinese and Russian translation sections with the same status and working procedure as for English, French and Spanish Translation sections.

As of 1st January 2005, the Arabic, Chinese and Russian document composition services have been created into the document composition section with the same status and working procedure as for English, French and Spanish document composition sections.

The preparation of the 2006-2007 ITU draft budget, in particular as far as the document production volume forecast are concerned, has been prepared following the same procedure in the six official and working languages through Sectors and General Secretariat workload submissions.

In the course of 2005, the use of short-term contract external translators will be improved and streamlined through the creation of a coordinated external translator data base to be use by the six translation Sections.

5.3 Appropriate solutions for the provision of ITU language services

The Conferences Department, in cooperation with IAMLADP concerned Working Groups and close coordination with the ITU Information System Department is permanently looking forward ICT applications in the field of interpretation, translation and document composition services. Presently, automatic translation computer applications do not meet the minimum quality required standards.

During the first quarter of 2005, voice recognition [as well as translation memory systems] have been implemented in the Translation sections. Also a Document automatic comparison system has been implemented in the document composition Sections. The implementation of these systems would lead to about 5% productivity gains which shall significantly reduce overtime, in particular during large meetings and conferences. (See info doc ??? Report on ICT and language services – Report on the use of voice recognition for translators)

The Information System Department has launched a study to examine the possible implementation of “voice on IP” for future interpretation services.

In the course of the second quarter of 2005, the Secretary-General has carried out an international call for bid for translation, editing and typesetting services, in one or several of the official and working languages of the Union, in order to insure harmonization of outsourcing procedures (See info doc ??? Call for bids for translation services).

A first investigation on “tele-working” for translation services has been carried out in order to identify possible savings. On this basis, in direct coordination with Finance and Personnel departments, a study will be carried out in this respect in the course of year 2005 (See info doc ??? “tele-working” for translation).

Findings and proposals on remote interpretation and remote translation are given in section 5.1 above.