(www.belga.be) - (www.sdlintl.com) – (www.kernic.com)

Belga - Belgium's first National Press Agency, SDL International and its Benelux distributor Kern International Consultants (KIC), have announced a contract for SDL's Real-time Translation system - "Enterprise Translation Server" - to support translations of European Union press information.

Belgium is currently acting as the Chair of the European Union (EU) for six months until December 2001, with Belga acting as the National Press Agency, collecting and processing EU-related information from various European sources in multiple languages, in a project termed "EuroBelga".
Belga's EU news will be published across various media channels, including the official website of the EU Presidency.

SDL's Enterprise Translation Server has been selected as a 'first-pass' automatic translation solution, prior to post-editing by the appropriate EU journalists.

Belga selected SDL's Enterprise Translation Server against competing automatic translation solutions because of the system's dictionary management capability, better translation quality and substantial speed benefits. SDL, together with KIC, was viewed as a suitable partner because the company was able to demonstrate commitment to on-going terminology extensions to the 'out-of-the-box' implementation, and to delivering Belga's sample text onto the system.

As part of the agreement, SDL committed to assist Belga in a six month pilot programme, by fine-tuning the dictionary functionality and analysing other integration points for the Enterprise Translation Server in Belga's news feed and news processing activity. SDL's Enterprise Translation Server will be rolled-out to various languages, including Dutch, during the next 12 months.

Commenting on its decision to employ SDL's services, Jaak Leenknegt, Technical and Administrative Director at Belga, said: "We chose SDL International because it offered a complete globalization solution, with the fast, reliable and high quality real-time translation capability needed to process our dynamic press content. We are confident that SDL will enable us to provide an even better service to our customers and newsfeed partners throughout Europe."

About Belga

Belga covers all national and international news, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. News is distributed in the form of dispatches (text) and photos. Belga covers all aspects of life and current affairs: politics and economics, finance and social affairs, sports, culture and personalities. Belga dispatches are firstly distributed to the 'traditional media'- daily press, radio and television-. Furthermore, the government and the companies are also to register as clients, as well as internet sites and new online applications. The latter are of a growing importance among our customers. Belga dispatches are not only intended for the Belgian market, but are also distributed worldwide thanks to the different international agreements signed with the biggest foreign press agencies.

The Belga label provides clients with a quality product based on reliability, and speed. Any form of outside pressure is resolutely rejected. These principles are jealously guarded by an enthusiastic and committed staff. Belga's traditional news story, intended mainly for media clients, is based on facts and nothing but facts. As a provider of journalistic 'raw materials', destined for users with widely differing demands, ideas and background, this neutral position is essential in safeguarding Belga's reputation of reliability. Apart from that 'basic product', the Belga dispatch, this agency offers a wide spectrum of specialised products.

About Kern International Consultants

Kern International Consultants was founded by Silveer Vandekerckhove, 15 years ago. Today the company is one of the major players on the Belgian ICT services market. With headquarters based in Antwerp and an office in Zwijndrecht (NL), KIC delivers expertise in SAP, Oracle, Mainframe and internet-development. Based on it's broad ICT domain experience, KIC was chosen to be the distributor for SDL's Enterprise Translation Server in the Benelux area.

For information on Belga please contact:
Jaak Leenknegt
Technical & Administrative Director
Tel: +31 2 743 2311
jaak.leenknegt@belga.be