According to Wednesday's Beijing Morning Post newspaper, the Shanghai municipal government has decided to carry out a citywide project this year and next to train and test local civil servants on their ability to speak Mandarin, the officially-endorsed standard Chinese spoken language also known as the "Putonghua" (language for the general public).

Starting from January 1, 2004, all civil servants in Shanghai must hold a Putonghua Proficiency Certificate to remain in the civil service, officials with the Shanghai Municipal Language Committee were quoted as saying.

Moreover, from now on any newly-inducted civil servants in Shanghai must first pass a test on Putonghua to prove that they have reached the required proficiency level, the officials said.

The ability of civil servants to use correct and standard Mandarin is the requirement of a highly efficient civil service, as well as a mark of the city's level of civilization, they claimed.

Some 70 percent of the city's civil servants will receive Putonghua training and be tested by the end of this year on schedule, they added.

A vast country with a huge population, China has thousands of different local dialects in use among its 1.3 billion people. The Shanghai dialect is among those most difficult to understand. However, the Putonghua language, which is mostly derived from colloquial usage in north China, has always proved a major headache for Shanghainese trying to study it.

(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2002)