Evaluation of Foreign Direct Investment Attractiveness of BRICS-T Countries: The CRITIC-LOPCOW Based ARAS Approach

: Foreign direct investments (FDIs) are of significant importance not only for multinational corporations (MNCs) but also for the development of the countries receiving these investments. Many countries, especially developing countries, are making efforts to attract more FDIs. This study focuses on BRICS-T (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Türkiye) countries, which play an important role in the global development landscape. The primary objective of this study is to assess the FDI attractiveness of BRICS-T countries for the period 2019-2023 through the application of multi-criteria decision-making methods (MCDM). In this study, CRITIC, LOPCOW and common weighting methods were used for criteria weighting. The study revealed that the corruption perception index (CPI), economic freedom index (EFI) and inflation rate were important in the criterion weights, while electricity production and gross domestic product (GDP) had low weights. Furthermore, an examination of the integrated performance results of all criteria weighting methods and the ARAS method reveals that China, India, and Türkiye stand out among the BRICS-T countries in terms of FDI attractiveness. Conversely, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa are identified as countries with the lowest FDI attractiveness. In general, Türkiye's FDI attractiveness has increased over the years, while Russia's FDI attractiveness has decreased.