A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Advanced Technologjes

Thesis (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1996

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has increase rapidly at the Asia-Pacific region since the mid l 980's where much of this investment flowed to the ASEAN countries. It is very important then for ASEAN countries to understand which factors are critical to determine the attractiveness of a host country to FDI. Moreover, it is also important for each of them to understand their own position among all competitors. In other hand, the investors also need a framework of analysis in order to make an investment decision on ASEAN countries. The objectives of this study are: firstly, to identify the factors affecting the attractiveness of ASEAN countries for FDI, secondly, to rank the factors affecting the attractiveness of ASEAN countries for FDI, thirdly, to rank the attractiveness of ASEAN countries. By using the methodology of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the factors are ranked on their importance. Political Stability was found to be the most important factor, followed by Macroeconomic Policy and Stability, Labour and Natural Resources Availability, Investment Climate, Physical and Social Infrastructure, Market Size, Foreign Exchange Control, Skilled Labour Availability and finally Cultural and Ethnic Network. As for the subfactor, the most important one is Investment Climate By Government Policy To Promote FDI followed by Investment Climate By Incentives For Investors, and finally Investment Climate By Government Attitude Toward FDI. Taken into account these factors Singapore was found to be the most attractive country, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei and Philippines share an equal rank and Vietnam as the least attractive country.