Formation and Development

On April 17^th 1946, President Ho Chi Minh signed Decree No. 47 on the establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Clause 8, Article 3 of the Decree stipulated Interpretation Bureau was among eight functioning units the Ministry (units at Headquarters), which assumed the task to: "translate foreign applications, books, newspapers into Vietnamese. Translate Vietnamese documents or books into foreign languages. Interpret for the Minister and other agencies within the Ministry when making direct contact with foreigners».  

1945-1954 marked a period of resistance war against the French. The Vietnamese government moved to the Viet Bac war zone. During this time, Viet Nam’s international relations were maintained at a modest level, as a result MOFA and the Interpretation Bureau in particular undertook very few activities.

During 1954-1979, the Interpretation Bureau was named the Interpretation Division under the Ministry Office. The Division was divided into several groups: Russian, English, French and Chinese. The Interpretation Division became a provider of interpreters (especially English) not only for MOFA, but also for the Party and State agencies, as well as trade, women and youth unions. 

From 1979 to 1991, the Interpretation Division was dissolved; this work was assigned to officials in MOFA’s specialized departments. In April 1991, in response to the need to have a full-time team of interpreters, the Minister of Foreign Affairs decided to re-establish the Interpretation Division, led by Ms. Ton Nu Thi Ninh (1991-1992). Afterward, Mr. Tran Ngoc Thach (1992-1993; 2000-2001), Pham Sanh Chau (1995-2000) and Ta Van Thong (2001-2008) were promoted by the Ministry to be the Division Head. 

 After nearly two decades of realizing the motto to multilateralize and diversify external relations and make proactive integration into the world, the demand for translation and interpretation for diplomatic activities of the Party and State grew considerably. In addition to popular languages ​​such as English, French, Russian or Chinese, there was also a special need to utilize others such as German, Arabic, Thai, Khmer, etc.  With a view to effectively responding to that need and further enhancing professionalism and quality of translation and interpretation, in June 2008, the Minister of Foreign Affairs decided to upgrade the Interpretation Division under the Ministry Office into the National Center for Interpretation and Translation.

 Since its establishment, the Center has witnessed a constant development, the professional team of interpreters has been expanded to take charge of dozens of different languages. In addition to provide interpretation for more frequent diplomatic activities of the Party, State, National Assembly and MOFA, the Center also provides its services at workshops and conferences at home and abroad, translates and edits thousands of pages of documents into numerous languages, organize training courses for other agencies and organizations. It can be said that the Center is growing from strength to strength to truly live up to its designation.