Province to step up security amid crisis

GUANGZHOU: Public security authorities in the southern province of Guangdong vowed yesterday to tighten efforts to maintain "a safe public order" amid closure of a large number of factories and forced unemployment of migrant workers due to the global financial crisis.

"The closure of factories, along with unemployment of an increasing number of migrant workers, may pose potential threats to the public security," He Guangping, deputy director of the Guangdong provincial public security department, said at the local people's congress, which ended yesterday.

Public order might become worse this year if migrant workers, under pressure of losing jobs, were seduced to commit crimes such as robbing, He said.