As announced on September 28 of 2012 by Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD), housing provident fund service hotline, after review and approval by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT),  is to be set up and made available across the country, so as to upgrade housing provident fund management efficiency and service standard, enhance transparency and social supervision of housing provident fund administration and effectively protect legitimate rights and interests of paying employees.

The announcement requires leveraging existing resources with minimized investment overlap to set up housing provident fund hotline (12329) facility. Other existing hotline numbers shall be no longer in use after launch of the new housing provident fund service hotline, which should then be promptly made known to the public. As required, provident fund management centers currently facilitated with hotlines shall replace existing hotlines with the new hotline 12329 prior to end of December of 2012.

Housing provident fund service hotline 12329 shall mainly resort to human voice to provide extension services by means of human voices and self-service such as service instructions, queries, and submission handling, as well as basic services including consultation, customer complaints resolutions and suggestions, and customer feedback survey.