Local civil servants will be required to follow the example of modern Chinese hero Lei Feng and "serve the people'' in more ways than one starting from next year.

The Guangzhou Federation of Volunteers is negotiating with local personnel and labour departments to require all the city's civil servants to perform community service in local neighbourhoods and residential districts.

"If everything goes smoothly, the civil servants in this Guangdong provincial capital will have to do this every year,'' said a federation official, who wished to remain anonymous.

And Guangzhou will become the first metropolis in China to require all its civil servants to do community service annually.

According to a development plan for 2004-05 that has been mapped out by the Guangzhou Federation of Volunteers, this means that all of Guangzhou's civil servants do at least 20 hours of community service annually, starting from next year.

This will be done during weekends and public holidays and will mainly consist of cleaning local streets, residential districts and other public places, tree planting and helping out at local homes for the elderly.

Their performance in this field will be taken into consideration when they are applying for promotion, or applying for professional qualifications.

The official also urged local companies and government departments to give priority in recruiting those who do some community service at least once in the next few years.

Meanwhile, the Guangzhou Federation of Volunteers will promote community service at local university and middle school campuses.

And more students will be organized to do such service every year.

A special community service month has been established from October 19 to November 19 to encourage the practice.

But not all of the city's servants are happy about their new duties.

An official from the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Personnel refused to comment when asked for their views.

But Liang Daiyan, an official from Guangzhou Taxation Bureau, was in favour of the new requirement, saying that it would help create a better society.

"Civil servants should set good examples for their residents and better serve the residents,'' Liang said.

But those against the new requirement say they should not be forced into doing this community service, and object to the fact that their promotion prospects will be connected to it.

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