Penal Protection for the Foreign investor and its Role as one of the Determinants of Foreign Direct investment Flows to the Sultanate of Oman

Nowadays, most countries around the world formulates proper
policies in order to attract foreign direct investment. Foreign direct
investment supplement domestic investment and boost economic
growth of national economies. Therefore, countries are competing
to create an attractive environment for the foreign investor who in
turn, looks to concessions and guarantees against non-commercial
risks, and wishes to avoid unnecessary administrative and
procedural obstacles, taking into account not to prejudice national
goals.
The research aims to explain what foreign investment is under
the Omani investment law, and to explain the guarantees and
incentives granted by this law, and to settle disputes arising from
investment contracts and special penal protection as a result of the
legal violation of investment issues, and then the way to analyze
the performance of foreign direct investment incoming to the
Sultanate in in the light of legislative and institutional reforms.
Therefore, the importance of the research is to introduce the legal
determinant as an important determinant of foreign direct
investment, along with defining the legal framework for the penal
liability of foreign direct investment in the Sultanate of Oman. By
analyzing the foreign investment data received from international
official sources, it shows the significant improvement in the
numbers of foreign investments flowing into the Sultanate,
especially in recent years, which witnessed many amendments in
the investment laws and attention to penal and legal protection for
the foreign investor.
The paper concludes that there should be a periodic review of
foreign investment laws in which the duties and rights of the
investors are precisely defined.