BEIJING - China on Friday announced five software applications designed to further promote and standardize the use of minority languages.

These programs include electronic dictionaries for the characters of the Yi and Zhuang ethnic groups, a proofreading tool for the Zhuang ethnic language, and transcoding applications for the languages of the Tibetan, Uygur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz ethnicities, according to a statement released Friday by the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.

These applications are highly compatible and can be used in "various operating systems," said the statement.

"Promoting the country's minority languages is significant for boosting ethnic cultures, as well as consolidating and developing equal and harmonious socialist ethnic relations," said Wu Shimin, vice director of the commission.

Li Jianhui, head of the China Ethnic Languages Translation Bureau, said the bureau will continue to research and develop electronic dictionaries and relevant software that go between Mandarin Chinese and other minority languages over the next five years.

China has some 30 million minority people using their own languages.