Rather than focusing on a particular phenomenon within the corpus provided for the workshop, we propose to evaluate the applicability of an existing interlingual system (the analysis component of the KANT machine translation system) on the entire set of sentences in the corpus. Because KANT is already in production use for technical text, this experiment will provide valuable information regarding:

• What does it take to adapt a domain-focused analyzer to produce interlingua for an new, uncontrolled domain?

• What phenomena in the corpus cannot be represented (or are poorly represented) by the KANT interlingua?

• What would it take to adapt KANT for use with uncontrolled text (exemplified by the corpus)?

• What are the larger (non-representational) issues to be considered when working with texts of this nature? (e.g., the test corpus is inherently ambiguous, and the mapping from surface form to interlingua is highly complex).

Here are the steps that we intend to follow in producing the full version of our paper:

• Run all of the sentences in the corpus through the KANT analyzer, adding whatever new lexical items are required.

• Analyze the resulting interlingua, dividing open issues into two categories: those that are easily addressed in KANT by further knowledge refinement, and those that are not easily solved (and perhaps require a different approach).

• Conclude with some global remarks about how well-suited the KANT architecture is for producing interlingua for unrestricted texts.

October 21, 1998:
The final version of the workshop paper is now available in PostScript and PDF.

Final KANT Interlinguas for Workshop Corpus Sentences

1. ACCION International is a U.S.-based private non-profit organization that currently provides technical assistance to a network of institutions in thirteen countries in Latin America and six cities in the United States.

2. Its network of eighteen independent organizations in Latin America has lent over $1 billion to microenterprises in the last five years, in loans averaging less than $500.

3. Three of the most advanced institutions in the ACCION network started their programmes as non-profit organizations and have, in the last five years, converted into regulated financial institutions that are part of the financial system in their countries but specialize in serving the microenterprise sector.

4. One of the most successful of these institutions is BancoSol in Bolivia.

5. Banco Solidario, S.A., Bancosol, grew out of a non-profit joint venture created in 1986 by prominent members of the Bolivian business community and ACCION International.

6. The latter brought with them leadership and seed capital, while the former provided technology and methodology.

7. PRODEM, as the programme was named, provided credit and training to broaden employment opportunities for the very poor self-employed, encourage investment in microbusinesses and increase the income generated by this sector.

8. PRODEM used the group lending technique of "solidarity groups" and began making small working capital loans.

9. The default rate remained close to zero during this time.

10. In five years, PRODEM was unable to recover only about $2000 of the $27 million it lent.

11. Many factors contributed to PRODEM's success.

12. the organization's commitment to total quality, including 100 % repayment; investment in training employees; and a powerful management information system were the most important.

13. By the end of 1991, PRODEM had a portfolio of $4 million and realized that despite its success, it was only reaching a small percentage of the market that needed its services.

14. The enormous demand, coupled with PRODEM's desire to provide savings services to its borrowers and to access capital markets for funds, moved PRODEM's leadership towards the transformation of this non-profit institution into a fully chartered privated commercial bank specializing in microfinance.

15. The transition required two years' work which began in 1989.

16. The process included designing the bank's financial structure as well as its projection for profitability; training staff and meeting the requirements of the Bolivian Superintendency of Banks.

17. BancoSol opened its doors in 1992.

18. PRODEM transferred to BancoSol its $4 million portfolio in exchange for shares, making PRODEM the largest shareholder of this newly formed bank.

19. Other shareholders included ACCION, Calmeadow from Canada, which had been very instrumental in the formation of the bank, Fundes from Switzerland and ICC, the Inter-American Development Bank's private arm.

20. After four years of operation, BancoSol is currently serving nearly 70000 clients through twenty-nine offices.

21. This clientele constitutes about 40 % of all the banking clients in the Bolivian banking system.

22. Currently, BancoSol lends approximately $80 million a year, in short-term loans averaging below $600.

23. BancoSol's outstanding portfolio is some $35 million, about 1/4 of which is funded through savings deposits.

24. Its plans are to continue expanding its coverage in Bolivia, to increase its mobilization of savings and to maintain itself as a profitable bank that services a population that has never had access to financial services.

25. BancoSol's success is helping reshape Bolivia's financial system.

26. In 1994 the Superintendency of Banks created a new type of regulated financial institution to enable other financially strong non-profit organizations to become regulated and thereby expand the availability of financial services to this sector.

27. Institutions in other countries are also learning from the experience of BancoSol and adapting it to their own settings.

28. K-Rep in Kenya, Accion Comunitaria del Peru, and Genesis in Guatemala, for example, are following BancoSol's lead and in the next two years plan to become regulated financial institutions specialized in microfinance.