Language services enjoy boom despite challenges

Young readers flip through translated publications at a Shanghai book fair. [Photo/VCG]

In the past five years, the language-service industry in China has doubled the value of its output, according to the latest report published in Beijing on Friday.

The report shows that the language-service sector, including translation, interpretation and localization, generated an estimated output worth about 282 billion yuan ($41 billion) by the end of 2015, compared to 125 billion yuan in 2010.

The figure was estimated from interviews with more than 400 companies among some 72,500 language-service companies in China, conducted by researchers from the China Academy of Translation and the Translators Association of China.

"The industry has grown rapidly in recent years," says Wang Gangyi, the executive dean of the academy.

"Translation of files and legal contracts in the fields of energy, manufacturing and construction are among the major services in the industry as more Chinese companies expand their business overseas－a result of the national strategy of going out."

English-Chinese translation and interpretation consist of 82 percent of services provided by companies in the industry, while around 10 percent of the market goes to Japanese-Chinese translation.

In the future, services for languages of the countries in regions covered by the Belt and Road Initiative is expected to rise.