New government platform provides quality Maltese translations free of charge

The Maltese government is introducing a new automatic translation service between English and Maltese, among other languages, with the aim of providing quality translations to citizens and the public administration.

The platform ‘traduzzjoni.mt’ combines data from the Maltese public administration, including the Laws of Malta, with the eTranslation platform developed by the European Commission, to ensure more refined translation results and access to specialised memories in various fields.

The platform is accessible to all citizens and members of the public administration free of charge. It is particularly intended to serve the linguistic needs of the Maltese public administration while encouraging the use of Maltese in digital environments.

The traduzzjoni.mt system operates through AI technology enabling automated translations. It can also be integrated into existing digital services, such as government websites, through an API, to make those services multilingual.

The platform itself will keep the content used for translations on MITA servers, located within Malta’s public administration infrastructure.

While this is the first version of the system, subsequent versions of the platform will include a terminology database to assist in the consistent use of terminology within the Maltese public administration.

The platform was developed through the project ‘National Platform for language technologies’, involving collaboration among entities from multiple European countries, including Malta, Latvia, Estonia, Iceland, and Croatia.

The Maltese entities that held develop the platform include MITA, the Office of the State Advocate, and the University of Malta. Meanwhile, the Ministry for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government will be tasked with ensuring the continuity and sustainability of the project.