A total of 67 new laws and regulations, including local legislation, aimed at helping common Chinese citizens went into effect Wednesday.

The new legal documents cover education, medical services, taxation, airport tax, trainee drivers, gasoline and production safety.

As an effort to ease burdens on families with students, the Ministry of Education has mandated to cap the rising tuition fees.

Another provision allows university students to postpone paying their student loans for six years instead of four. Also, students with loans are allowed to pay off the debt with no interest while they are in school.

The welfare of migrant workers in Beijing will be further protected under a new policy, which requires companies hiring migrant workers pay insurance for their employees. Migrant workers will be entitled to the same industrial accident and medical insurance treatment as other urban workers.

A regulation concerning work safety issued by the Beijing Municipal Government requires companies to report accidents in a timely manner or face punishment or fines.

Drivers in Beijing will have cleaner gasoline and diesel oil, beginning Wednesday. Gasoline standards have been raised to the Euro II Standard and will benefit the driver's health and protect the environment.

According to the Ministry of Health, patients can buy medicines with doctors' prescriptions both in hospitals, where drugs used to be more expensive, and drug stores.

The new laws and regulations are not only favorable to Chinese people and companies but also for foreigners.

A new regulation issued by the China Banking Regulatory Commission reduced the registered capital of accounting firms from 300 million yuan (US$36.22 million) to 100 million yuan (US$12.1 million) and foreign investment companies can also set up accounting firms in China.

People with credit cards issued by foreign banks can get foreign currency directly from Automated Teller Machine in China beginning Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2004)