By Li Hongmei

General Motors will shift the bulk of its non-Chinese international operations from Shanghai to Singapore in 2014, marking a coup for the Asian city-state as it lures an increasing number of multinational companies with tax breaks and other incentives.

The Detroit-based carmaker said it would locate 120 staff in Singapore to oversee markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Africa, India, South Korea and the Middle East, as well as the European operations of Chevrolet - its best-selling brand - and Cadillac, its luxury marque.

The shift is the latest success in Singapore's efforts to encourage multinational companies to establish regional headquarters, as it takes advantage of companies' desire to tap into the region's rapidly growing markets.

It also marks GM's return to Singapore after a decade. The company moved its Asia-Pacific headquarters from Singapore - where it had been since 1993 - to Shanghai in 2004.

That coincided with the rapid emergence of China's car market, where GM around that time started selling more units of its Buick brand than in the US.

By making the decision to shift its "consolidated international operations" (CIO) to Singapore, GM is in effect carving out a separate unit from its now much larger businesses in China and South Korea.

GM said decisions about its CIO markets would now be made "in the interest of growing our business while allowing us to focus even more intently on China".

The company plans to retain 250 staff in Shanghai to oversee China, while 245 staff will remain in Seoul.

GM's light vehicle sales in China have risen by an average annual rate of 27 per cent over the past five years, from 1.1m units in 2008 to almost 3m in 2012, making the country its largest market.

Its operations there include four manufacturing joint ventures, a research and development centre and four sales and service operations. "GM has achieved a very deep level of localization in China," said Bill Russo, a Beijing-based automotive consultant.