Much of the economic development in the 1960s and 1970s was sponsored by Japanese investors, especially in the iron-ore sector, while American and British investment remained centred in the pastoral, agricultural and construction sectors. From the 1990s China emerged as a major market for WA goods and as a potential investor. State and federal government of major public works continued despite some evidence of local maladministration during the "WA Inc" years of the late 1980s. Thus the early years of the 21st century saw the completion of the Ord River Project in the north-west and the rapid expansion of the Perth metropolitan rail and freeway networks.