NANNING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Thursday passed a regulation to protect ethnic minority languages.

The regulation specifies that public institutions in Zhuang-populated areas should use both Mandarin and Zhuang in their officials seals and plaques.

Courts and procuratorates in multi-ethnic regions should use local languages in handling the cases, and recruit employees proficient in Mandarin and local languages, according to the regulation.

The regulation also encourages and supports bilingual education in kindergartens, elementary and middle schools, as well as the education and training of bilingual teachers.

It stipulates that governments at county level and above shall take measures to preserve ethnic minority languages.

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is home to many ethnic groups including Zhuang, Han, Miao, Dong, and Yao, many of which have their own written languages.

Zhuang is China's largest minority group, but for a long time, it has had no standardized written language. In 1982, Guangxi released a scheme of Zhuang writing system based on 26 Latin letters.