Seated at an assembly line checking electronic dictionaries, 21-year-old Wei Weiyuan is typical of the tens of thousands of young women lured from rural poverty in surrounding provinces to seek work in Guangdong provinces thriving technology cities.

Clad in blue overalls, Wei doesnt stop work while answering questions from foreign reporters visiting the factory of Hong Kong-listed Nam Tai Group.

"I had friends here," she says in reply to a question on why she came to Shenzhen, adjoining Hong Kong, from her hometown of Nanling in neighbouring Guangxi region.

Of her fellow assembly line workers, 75 percent are women, says Nam Tai Group chief executive Joseph Li.

"The woman is more patient and precise to do this kind of work," he says, adding that they are paid an average 1,000 yuan a month (120 dollars).

Similarly, Taiwanese firm Lite-On Group employs around 4,000 mostly female workers at its Guangzhou Hi-tech Industrial Zone complex, says general manager Frank Chow.

For a traditional electronics assembly line making scanners, printers and mobile phones, "The womans eye and hand is better than the male," he says.

While this might be a factor, some labour activists note that female workers can prove easier to control than their male counterparts, making them attractive employees in a region where migrants are often treated and paid poorly.

The women, 92 percent of whom are under 25, work for an average three years before returning to their families, often in nearby Sichuan, Hunan and Henan provinces, "because they have to go home, to get married," Chow said.

Guangdongs hi-tech industry is heavily reliant on workers, usually women and with little education, from its rural hinterland and poorer inland provinces close by.

Average per capita disposable income of Guangdongs urban residents was 10,415 yuan in 2001, up 7.6 percent on the previous year, while farmers net income was 3,770 yuan, up just 3.5 percent on 2000. And in Guangxi, farmers' net income was under 2,000 yuan.

"The Guangdong area is quite rich, for our industry we need more workers but cannot find them here, thats why we need workers from inland China," said Chow.

The women, mostly with just high school education, are paid around 700 yuan a month and receive free dormitory accommodation and meals.

"Labour costs are one of the key elements" for locating in southern China, said Dongguan Nokia Mobile Phones Co. Ltd. general manager C.K. Choi.

"And the labour laws are lax, thats not to say we dont treat them (workers) well," he said, rather it was that the unions are not as strong as in Europe.

In China independent unions are illegal with labour activists receiving lengthy jail terms.

While most firms claim labour relations are smooth at their plants in the region, they acknowledge that there have been problems at other companies. According to Guangdong government figures, the province had 45,000 labour disputes last year.

Migrant workers have swelled the populations of the Pearl River Delta cities, accounting for the vast majority of inhabitants of Shenzhen and neighbouring Dongguan, putting pressure on local resources.

They are sometimes blamed for rising crime which has accompanied the regions economic development.

The provincial capital of Guangzhou faces pressure from its 3.1 million migrant workers, out of a population of around 10 million, said Executive Vice Mayor Zhang Guangning.

"So we have to provide more services for this population," he said.

"There is no doubt that the floating population will put more pressure on the city," he said, adding, however, that the law and order situation was under control.

"I can tell you that last year the number of crimes committed in the city was 15 percent lower that of the previous year," he said.

Dongguan mayor Li Guikang said his city had 1.5 million locals and 5.5 million migrants. Among the local population, the sex ratio is 51 women for 49 men, while the migrant population is 72 percent female, he said.

"They will work here and make money and several years later they will go home and maybe get married," the mayor said, adding that the citys migrant workers sent home around 13 billion yuan last year.

And for Wei, she says she misses her family, but after three years in Shenzhen has no immediate plans to return home.

SPACE.WIRE