الاستثمار الأجنبي المباشر و أثره على النمو و التكامل الاقتصادي بمجلس التعاون لدول الخليج العربية

Abstract EN

The Cooperation Council of Gulf Arab states (GCC) has witnessed since 2005, a marked increase in the volume of inward FDI in the light of the growing confidence aspirations of the future of the GCC economies and reduced barriers which stand in the way of investment, as well as the improvement in economic policies and legislation relevant.

Despite this, the size of these investment flows is still limited when compared to the size of the economies of GCC countries or the size of the investment going to other emerging markets, which may require further efforts to encourage investment, both domestic and foreign, since that would impact economic growth and integration in these countries.

This paper considered as participation in the process to demonstrate the relationship between FDI and economic growth on the one hand and the relationship of FDI to economic integration on the other hand in the GCC countries.

This paper tests and analyzes the evidence on direct investment in six countries (Saudi Arabia; the United Arab Emirates; Sultanate of Oman; Qatar; Kuwait and Bahrain) which constitutes GCC.

The aim of this paper is to test the extent these countries able to recognize the importance of FDI in the process of economic growth and integration as well as what measures and policies which were applied in order to attract foreign capital and encourage foreign investment.

Depending on the evidence, the paper will also collate and highlight some of the determinants of foreign direct investment and its impact on economic integration among the GCC countries.

This paper used the new growth theories, techniques and statistical methods to test experimentally the relationship between foreign direct investment and economic growth and integration in the GCC countries.

The results that we have acquired from the data analysis indicate a weak relationship between these variables.

Keywords: foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth, economic integration, and Cooperation Council for the Arab Gulf States (GCC).