BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Villagers in 99.9 percent of Chinese villages now have access to legal counseling, according to the Ministry of Justice.

By the end of 2018, around 650,000 villages nationwide had been equipped with at least one legal adviser, said Minister of Justice Fu Zhenghua.

Under the program to expand the legal service network to the grassroots, lawyers are required to be hired as legal advisers of villages to provide legal advice on village management, mediating neighborhood disputes and enhancing legal awareness.

The ministry also encouraged lawyers to offer legal diagnoses for private enterprises to promote their development.

Lawyers have helped private companies in settling more than 44,000 disputes and offered about 78,000 suggestions to control legal risks last year.