Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Oman: Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Oman

Abstract

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has changed worldwide due to the acute financial and economic crises that the world has witnessed in the last decades. The world economy changed rapidly, where many states became hostile towards FDI, particularly in conflict zones. Such an attitude has changed since many countries realized the benefits of FDI and its contribution to their economies. The research uses a qualitative method to provide more substantial evidence for the findings through convergences and rationale of finding. It will also increase the generalization of the results and adds to a better understanding of FDI and encourage researchers to identify the barriers and obstacles in attracting more FDI projects to Oman, such as legislative, bureaucracies, market size, and the investment climates. The outcome of this research reveals the challenges that foreign direct investment in Oman. These are bureaucracy, the investment climate, which is related to the rules and regulation, the market size of Oman, which is considered very small in international scales, and the Omanization project, which aims to replace the expatriate's workforce with nationals. This research paper conducted a SWOT analysis for Oman's investment environment, which showed many strong points as Oman enjoyed many opportunities that the government might take as the opportunities to use those as drivers to enhance the foreign direct investment inflow to Oman. Much of the analysis showed some weak points where the government should tackle it and improve it. This study took Singapore and the United Arab Emirates as secondary case studies, where both states had a successful experience in attracting foreign direct investment due to different policies where the Oman government can learn from such practices.

Keywords: Determinants, Motivators, Foreign, Investment, Oman