Motorola, the world's second-biggest maker of mobile telephones, said yesterday it was moving design work for semiconductors from Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong to lower-cost locations in India and China.

Although only about 50 jobs will be lost, the latest Motorola announcement shows that "offshoring" continues to affect developed economies in Asia, as well as in Europe and the Americas.

It also shows that India and China attract highly skilled design tasks as well as investments in low-cost manufacturing and services.

Ms Gloria Shiu of Motorola Semiconductor said cost was only one factor in the decision to end chip design work in Singapore and Taiwan, and to shift design of wireless communications processors out of Hong Kong.

Motorola was consolidating operations at its design centres in India, China and Australia for greater efficiency.

Most of the company's 1,000 design engineers in Asia were already based in India and China, she said, illustrating the uphill struggle that the region's industrialised economies must endure to remain competitive.

Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea are each pursuing economic strategies based on their present or future roles as high-technology service centres for Asia.

Policymakers in all three countries, faced with the loss of manufacturing investment to China, still hope to retain high-value jobs in areas such as research and development.

"Offshoring", meanwhile, has become a hot topic in this year's US election campaign, with politicians complaining that China and India are taking badly needed jobs away from American workers.

Motorola and General Electric (GE) are among the companies that have been criticised for investing in China while laying off thousands of US employees.

Last week, GE, in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, warned investors that its business costs could rise if political pressure in the United States led to the closure of offshore operations.