After 50 years, the country's unique Passport for Public Affairs is gradually being abolished, a senior foreign ministry official was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying.

Starting April 1, all Chinese workers going abroad for either State or private industries can only get ordinary passports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The country has four kinds of passports: Diplomatic Passports (waijiao huzhao), Service Passports (gongwu huzhao), Passports for Public Affairs (yin'gong putong huzhao) and Passports (huzhao).

And citizens going from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong and Macao need special permits, officials said.

Other countries around the world, except the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Viet Nam, do not have Passports for Public Affairs.

The Passports for Public Affairs are generally used by ordinary staff from governments and State enterprises and institutions, the ministry said.

Holders of such passports have easier access to visas than people with ordinary passports.

Some countries even do not require visas for holders of the Passports of Public Affairs, as well as for those with the Diplomatic Passports and the Service Passports.

The timetable for phasing out the passports has not yet been set, said Zhong Jianhua, director of the department of Consular Affairs under the ministry.

The ministry will gradually replace Passports for Public Affairs with either ordinary passports or Service Passports.

But many staff members of State-owned enterprises and institutions want to apply for the Passport for Public Affairs while they still can, so that they have easier access to visas, Zhang said.

The ministry's earlier regulations said domestic students studying abroad must also hold ordinary passports.

( China Daily April 2, 2002)