The Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China recently issued standards for government hotlines, with the aim of standardizing government hotline services.

The standards are due to come into effect on July 1, 2017.

According to the standards, government hotlines should operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and incoming calls should be received within 15 seconds. Within 24 consecutive hours the call success rate should be no less than 95 percent.

The response time for short massages should be no more than three minutes and the response time for emails should be no more than 24 hours.

The standards require government hotline service staff to use Mandarin. But if necessary, the hotlines should be able to provide services in local dialects, ethnic languages and foreign languages.

The standards also cover working procedures and work ethics for those working with such hotlines.

However, the administration says the government hotline service standards are recommendations, not mandatory.

The bid to standardize government hotline services is part of the leadership's efforts to ensure the government better responds to the public's needs and enhance government work efficiency.