The Chinese government has launched a two-year training program for officials at city and county levels on properly handling public complaints.

The program aims to train nearly 600 grassroots officials in charge of handling public complaints this year, according to a statement released Tuesday by the State Bureau for Letters and Calls.

The bureau and its local branches are in charge of handling complaint letters and visits.

The training program, said the statement, aims to better protect people's rights by striving to solve them problems in a timely manner.

Officials are to learn how to handle emergency events, how to deal with complaints on the Internet and how to answer media inquiries.