Foxconn Electronics, the Chinese manufacturer of gadgets like Apple's iPad, Wednesday signed an agreement with the government of Hunan Province to set up production and research bases in the central China province.

It was the first move into Hunan by the world's largest electronics contractor, which is based in south China's Shenzhen, and part its strategy of moving production from coastal China to inland areas.

Jiang Haoliang, Foxconn's head of high-technology integration, who signed the agreement, said 100,000 of the company's 1 million employees were natives of Hunan.

"Foxconn values the quality of staff from the province," he said.

According to the agreement, the proposed plants and research centers will be located in the provincial capital of Changsha and Hengyang City.

The company declined to disclose how many staff it planned to recruit in Hunan.

Jiang said the company would make hardware and software, and research new products in the integration of telecommunications and cable TV networks and the Internet.

The city governments have offered incentives such as land and tax reductions to support Foxconn's business development, but officials declined to give details of the incentives.

Foxconn, part of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., announced earlier this year it would open plants in the inland provinces of Henan and Sichuan. It also has assembly plants in other inland provinces, including Hebei, Shanxi and Hubei.

(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2010)