English abstract
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) plays a significant economic role for most of the developing countries. Consequently, FDI has become an important objective for economic development in the Sultanate of Oman. According to the World Bank (2018), Oman is globally ranked well in terms of being a potentially attractive destination for Foreign Direct Investment. This important issue encouraged the researcher to identify the barriers and obstacles in attracting more FDIs to Oman such as legislatives, bureaucracies, market size and the investment climates. This research also examines the regulations and governance of FDI in Oman and suggests certain political steps that the government should adopt. Oman enjoys a political stability and according to World Peace Index 2018, it is rated as the fifth in the world; such a factor could motivate foreigner investors to invest in Oman.
The purpose of this research study is to highlight the significance of FDI to Oman and to identify the determinants of attracting noteworthy share of inflow FDI and to highlight the relationship between FDI and economic growth and the government regulations related to FDI. Additionally, other objectives are to identify the political steps that government of Oman should consider in order to enhance the FDI inflow and to give recommendations to policy makers in order to enhance more FDI inflow in Oman.
The research philosophy in this study is emanates from pragmatism philosophy and inductive approach. To address the research problem, qualitative method is implemented for data collection. Primary qualitative data is collected through semi-structured interviews and documentation analysis, including governmental and non-governmental reports and records. Secondary data is collected from books, literature reviews, journals, and online resources, official publications, World Bank, Oman Central Bank, Ministry of Finance, UNCTAD records, and other Omani institutions.
The results of this thesis are mainly emphasised that there is a high potential for Oman to attract a significant share of the FDI in the region and enhance the inflow of FDI. The government in Oman should take certain political steps to improve the investment climate, governance of FDI and the market size. In addition, the findings suggest making Oman as main future destination for the FDI inflow, to increase the contribution of the FDI in Oman's economy and to achieve the economic diversification as a part of the vision of Oman 2040.
