GM Asia Headquarters to Move to Shanghai

General Motors Corp. plans to move its Asia-Pacific headquarters to Shanghai from Singapore by January and spend $250 million with a local partner to expand a design center.

GM said the spending was part of a planned $3-billion investment over three years in a country it expects to become its No. 2 market in 2004. The carmaker plans to raise its annual output to 1.3 million units by 2007 by expanding factories and building additional plants.