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At the school education level, we have in place the Chinese Textbooks Incentive Award Scheme. The aim of the Scheme is to encourage publishers to produce good quality Chinese textbooks and reference books in a variety of subjects to support the use of Chinese as the medium of instruction in secondary schools. In the first three phases of the scheme implemented between 1987 and 1992, a total of 92 sets of books covering 32 subjects at Secondary 1 to 7 level were produced, of which 25% were translated through the equivalent textbooks in English. Phase 4 of the scheme, which is currently in progress, aims to produce by both writing and/or translating an additional 43 sets of books for use in the 1998-99 school year. The financial assistance awarded to publishers under the first three phases amounted to $15.3 million and that for phase 4 is estimated at $54.5 million.

At the tertiary education sector, with the exception of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, all the institutions offer courses in translation either at sub-degree, undergraduate and/or postgraduate level. These courses help to equip the graduates with the necessary language skills and knowledge for writing and translating books and other written materials. It is understood that most of the graduates have found employment in translation. In addition, some of the institutions including the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Hong Kong Baptist University have established translation centres to promote bilingualism.

At the community level, the Language Fund was established in 1994 with an initial injection from Government of $300 million to fund projects to raise standards in Chinese and English. One of the important areas for which projects are invited from the community is in the field of translation. Although so far few projects in this area. have been submitted and only one such project has been approved for funding, it is hoped that more will be received in future. Also, the Language Fund Advisory Committee is in the process of mapping out further pro-active measures to encourage projects on strengthening bi-lingual proficiency in general and for the work force in particular.

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