Foxconn is to build a new plant in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan province, municipal authorities said Tuesday.

Foxconn and senior officials of Zhenzhou and Henan are working on the details of an agreement to build the plant, said a spokesman for the municipal government.

Zhengzhou has allocated land for the plant. The first phase construction will cover 133 hectares, he added.

Henan has launched a massive recruitment drive for the new plant.

The new plant is to employ 300,000 people in the long run. About 100,000 people are to be recruited in the near future, said a recruitment advertisement on the official website of Henan's Hebi city.

Workers can expect a monthly income from 2,500 yuan to 3,000 yuan with wages of no less than 2,000 yuan per month, the advertisement said. The pay is about the same as that of Foxconn's plants in Shenzhen of south China's Guangdong province.

Newly recruited workers are to intern in Foxconn's Shenzhen plants before working in the new plant.

Foxconn came under fire after 10 workers committed suicide by jumping from factory and dorm buildings in its industrial complex in Shenzhen from July 2009 to May 2010.

On June 1, Foxconn increased the monthly wages of assembly workers from 900 yuan to 1,200 yuan. On June 6, Foxconn announced another pay hike: the assembly workers' monthly wages were to be raised to 2,000 yuan since October 1.

Henan with a population of more than 100 million is China's most populous province. The province has 22 million people working elsewhere as migrant workers.

(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2010)