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Singapore’s success in transforming itself from a poor, vulnerable economy to one of the richest countries in the world (IMF, 2016) is nothing short of inspirational to many small economies around the globe. Given its lack of resources, Singapore relied upon foreign investors to fuel its growth not only through cash injection into the economy in the form of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) but also to help upgrade its skills and technological stock. This study looks at how Singapore inspired many Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) into pouring a large sum of investments into this small ailing citystate and if this idea can be generalized to apply it in other economies, especially in Oman.
In a bid to explain the large flow of Capital into an economy, this study moves on further to review most prominent literature in the field since Macdougall (1958) first laid the groundwork for the subsequent theories on FDI. Based on the review of several previous studies, the most significant determinants of FDI were found to be government policy and political stability, inflation rate as a proxy for economic stability, quality of infrastructure and institutions, market size of the host country, openness to trade, tax policies and access to low cost factors of production.
Through a case study method with the inductive approach, this study finds that Singapore excels in all of the determinants of FDI except for the market size of the host country and access to low-cost factors of production. However, it more than compensates for these shortcomings with its strategic geographical location and numerous bilateral and regional trade agreements that give it access to markets around the region. Oman like Singapore ranks well in many of these determinants that make it a potential destination for investment. However, the sultanate could gain more interest from the MNC’s to help its growth by optimizing its policies to lower existing barriers, easing immigration laws to meet the short term skill shortage, allowing for 100 percent foreign ownership, allowing for more liberal property rights, working to improve corruption perception and opting for more trade agreements to give it easy access to larger markets. Moreover, the economy’s heavy reliance on hydrocarbon exports is seen as a major risk by investors as it creates an economic vulnerability which could potentially overshadow many other benefits of investing in the sultanate. Besides the aforementioned determinants, a lot also depends on the success of Oman’s diversification plans.
In the present work, nonlinearities in temperature compensating (TC) SAW devices are investigated. The materials used are LiNbO₃-rot128YX as the substrate and Copper electrodes covered with a SiO₂-layer as the compensating layer. In order to understand the role of these materials for the nonlinearities in such acoustic devices, a FEM simulation model in combination with a perturbation approach is applied. The nonlinear tensor data of the different materials involved in TC-SAW devices have been taken from literature, but were partially modified to fit experimental data by introducing scaling factors. An effective nonlinearity constant is determined by comparison of nonlinear P-matrix simulations to IMD3 measurements of test filters. By employing these constants in nonlinear periodic P-matrix simulations a direct comparison to nonlinear periodic FEM-simulations yields the scaling factors for the material used. Thus, the contribution of different materials to the nonlinear behavior of TC-SAW devices is obtained and the role of metal electrodes is discussed in detail.