Garamendi: “That the Australian government has taken notice of our translation system is recognition of our work”

• Minister Garamendi has explained to a delegation of the Australian Government the IZO service, the Official Translation Service of the Basque Government
• The visit is part of the Australian government's interest in implementing a similar system in its health centres and different public services after identifying shortcomings in its written translation systems

The Minister for Public Governance and Self-Government, Olatz Garamendi, received in Vitoria-Gasteiz, an official delegation from the Australian Government headed by the directors of the Department of Health, Susan Greenaway and Lisa Zwankhuizen, and two representatives of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. During the meeting, the Minister explained the origin of the Basque language and the current linguistic reality in the administration and shared the main characteristics of the Official Translators System, IZO.

After the meeting, Garamendi stressed: “We are proud that the government of a country like Australia has taken us as an example for the improvement of its translation and terminology services. As in the Basque administration, there, too, they are committed to guaranteeing and reinforcing the linguistic rights of their citizens.”

During the pandemic, the Australian Government Health Department identified room for improvement in its written translation system. Australia is a country where more than 400 languages are spoken and 50% of its population is of foreign origin. In this context, the Australian Government intends to improve communication with its citizens by optimizing its translation system and after a year of work and research, they want to take the Basque Government's IZO system as an example.

For this reason, the Australian delegation will hold multiple meetings with IVAP and IZO managers over the next four days, until December 15, to learn about the language policies, translation methods, staff selection processes, digital translation tools and quality controls of the IZO system and to implement them in their different public services, especially in health centres.

IZO (Itzultzaile Zerbitzu Ofiziala - Official Translators System)

IZO's objective is to cover the Basque language translation and interpreting needs of the Basque Government’s administration, and to offer its services to the public sector, with the highest quality and in conditions that encourage the use of Basque, as well as to establish and disseminate legal-administrative terminology in Basque and provide materials and tools for administrative drafting in Basque. All this to promote the administrative use of the Basque language, in order to contribute to the normalisation of its use.