By the end of this year all vehicles carrying dangerous chemicals, fireworks or explosives for civil uses will be required to install satellite-positioning devices that can record their whereabouts, the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) has announced.

This was part of China's increased efforts in 2011 to use advanced safety technologies to reduce fatalities and injuries caused by workplace accidents, Luo Lin, head of SAWS, said on Thursday at its annual conference.

The new rule for vehicles will also be applied to all tourist charter buses and cross-county long-distance bus services.

Other technologies that help to improve work safety would be applied to the country's mines, smelters, machinery makers and fishing vessels, said Luo.

The administration will make it compulsory for mining companies nationwide to install six safety and refuge systems in the shafts for monitoring production, positioning miners, ventilation, supplying water and communication, and providing underground refuge space, he added.

Of the systems introduced in the past few years, the monitoring, ventilation, water-supply and communication systems are now working in full at all of the country's coal mines, said Zhao Tiechui, deputy head of SAWS.

Zhao is also head of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety.

Zhao said coal-mining companies must act more quickly to install the six safety and refuge systems in 2011.