The Standing Committee of the Fujian Provincial People's Congress has passed an amendment to the family planning regulations, allowing parents to have a second child.

However, the new policy clearly stated that parents who are both an only child will be allowed to have a second child, the local authorities said. The one-child policy will continue to be followed by if the mother or the father is not an only child.

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The amendment to the province's population and family planning law was unanimously passed on Saturday following a survey that showed 60 percent of families in Fujian want to have a second child.

"The survey showed that majority of families that are qualified to have a second child are actually willing to have another child," the local legislature stressed.

The local legislature added that the Fujian government has long considered the desire of qualified parents to have a second child, citing the rise in China of aging parents that have lost their only child and are left with no one to take care of their needs.

The amendment to Fujian's family planning policy is expected to result to 56,000 newborns in the next two years, authorities revealed.

Fujian is the recent addition to the list of Chinese municipalities and provinces that have also allowed a second child for qualified parents.

Among those that have amended the one-child policy are Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqin and Tianjin and the provinces of Guangdong, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangxi.

In Jiangsu, the amendment to the one-child policy only has one condition. It says that parents will be allowed to have a second child only if the wife is older than 24 years old.