International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

Frequency: 12

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 Volume 12, Issue 10 (October 2025), Pages: 11-19

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 Original Research Paper

Investigating the factors influencing foreign direct investment in Saudi Arabia

 Author(s): 

 Asma Baaboud *, Rozina Shaheen

 Affiliation(s):

 College of Business, Effat University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

 Full text

    Full Text - PDF

 * Corresponding Author. 

   Corresponding author's ORCID profile:  https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6347-7281

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2025.10.002

 Abstract

This study examines the factors that influence Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Saudi Arabia, using data from 2002 to 2022. It focuses on seven key variables, grouped into three categories: economic factors, human resources, and governance. Six different models are used to assess these factors. The results show that both economic growth and population growth positively and significantly encourage FDI. On the other hand, trade openness, exports, and strict regulations have a negative and significant impact on FDI. These findings suggest that promoting economic and population growth, while reconsidering trade and regulatory policies, is important for increasing FDI in Saudi Arabia.

 © 2025 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

 Foreign direct investment, Economic growth, Population growth, Trade openness, Regulatory policies

 Article history

 Received 16 March 2024, Received in revised form 25 July 2025, Accepted 31 August 2025

 Acknowledgment

No Acknowledgment. 

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Baaboud A and Shaheen R (2025). Investigating the factors influencing foreign direct investment in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 12(10): 11-19

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 Figures

  Fig. 1

 Tables

  Table 1  Table 2  Table 3  Table 4  Table 5

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