Hewlett-Packard (HP) will invest US$1 billion in Singapore over the next five years to bring its high-end manufacturing closer to the fast-growing Asia-Pacific end user market, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

The company opened a new 20,000 square-foot manufacturing line in Singapore to produce its top-end Superdome server range, reflecting the fact that China and South Korea are two of the fastest-growing markets for the product, which is designed to run business-critical applications across a range of operating systems.

The Superdome, which is usually customized for each end user, is currently installed at large operations such as SK Telecom in Korea, China State Administration of Taxation, Pacific Century Cyberworks in Hong Kong and ABN-AMRO Bank offices in Singapore, HP said in the statement.

Other new manufacturing investments will focus on high-end product categories in enterprise products, imaging and printing, the company said.

Singapore hosts HP's Asia-Pacific headquarters and includes manufacturing, global research and development and distribution functions, as well as an HP Cooltown Innnovation Center to showcase products which fall into the pervasive computing category.

HP did not say whether the new investment would lead it to increase the almost 6,000 staff it currently employs in Singapore. More than one-third of those work in research and development or value-added engineering, HP said.