Both Japanese and U.S. MNCs have focused natural resource-related investments in Indonesia and finance and distribution investments in Hong Kong. In manufacturing, U.S. electronics companies began making significant investments in Malaysia and Singapore from the late 1970s, with much of the output exported back to the United States. This was largely motivated by the need to reduce costs in response to competition from Japan's ascendant electronics industry. Comparing the Asian strategies of U.S. and Japanese electronics MNCs is useful, because a large portion of each country's manufacturing investments in the region has been made in this industry.