Oniva, the Dublin-based international e-business consultancy, will shed a fifth of its workforce and close its Belfast office as part of a corporate restructuring.

Some 19 staff who make up the firm's international expansion team will be made redundant at its Dublin office and a further 12 jobs will be lost in Belfast.

The company has also put on hold its plans to establish an office in China and has asked its international subsidiaries in Germany, Switzerland, Britain and the Netherlands to assess their local operations.

The restructuring is further evidence of a slowdown in the global technology market. Late last year, the Canadian software firm Corel shut its main Dublin operation and the Internet bank First-e also shed jobs. Mr Daragh Scaife, co-founder and director of Oniva Ireland, said the restructuring was in line with an expected slowdown in technology markets worldwide.

He said the firm was restructuring to focus on three core service lines - information design, platform-based e-business work and business process applications.

Mr Scaife said he could not yet give details of a redundancy plan for workers.

In common with many technology firms offering e-business services, Oniva grew rapidly during the Internet boom of 1999 and 2000. Revenues increased from under €1 million in 1997 to €11 million last year. Staffing rose from 19 employees in 1997 to its current level of 150 in several European countries.

In September last year, Oniva announced plans to expand into the Chinese market through a strategic alliance with Chinese firm Sparkice.com. However, the downturn in technology and yesterday's decision to make redundant the firm's international expansion team will dent Oniva's global ambitions.