Candidates for government jobs in Xinjiang must be able to communicate in both Chinese and the local language, regional authorities said Friday.

From 2010, all candidates for government jobs must be bilingual, according to the regulation adopted by the regional government Tuesday, Kang Tingfeng, a spokesman for Xinjiang's human resources department, said.

The regulation will enable officials to better serve the people, encourage the learning of languages and promote exchange between people of different ethnic groups, he said.

Ethnic Han candidates will have to be able to talk with ethnic minorities in the ethnic minorities' language. Similarly, ethnic minority candidates must be able to read and write simple Chinese.

A candidate who passes the job test and interview but who fails to meet the language requirements will be required to attend a 3-month language training program, the regulations say.

After the training, the candidate's language abilities will be tested again. If the candidate fails the test again, he/she will be given another opportunity to study in the following year's training program. If the candidate fails the test a third time, his/her job application will be rejected.

The regional government is also urging officials, especially grassroots officials, to become bilingual.

Government employees hired in the past two years are required to join language training programs.

Bilingual skills have been a prerequisite for government jobs in the Xinjiang cities of Kashgar and Hotan for years.

The regulation is significant in Xinjiang, where more than 12 million of its 20-million population speak 13 ethnic languages, said Ma Pinyan, a scholar with Xinjiang's Academy of Social Sciences.