REFLECTING the growing importance of personal computer markets in the Asia-Pacific, Compaq Computer last week announced plans to double the capacity of its Singapore manufacturing facility.

The company's plans called for a capital outlay of US$50 million to double the plant's size from its present 360,000 square feet to 730,000 sq ft by 1996. This would result in the addition of eight extra production lines.

The Singapore operation, which makes both desktop and portable computers, operates in three shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The operation employs about 2,000 workers and accounts for about 20 per cent of the $7.2 billion of computers Compaq sold last year.

Compaq also said it would move some of the more labour-intensive manufacturing tasks to the firm's new joint-venture manufacturing plant in Shenzhen where labour costs are lower.