!"#$% &’(!) *++,,,!!"#$%-&’(!)’. Full Length Research Paper The evaluation of the investment environment in the industrial activity in Jordan Mohammed Al-Shoura 1 and Anas Al Bakri 2 * 1 School of Management, Faculty of Business, Middle East University (MEU), Jordan. 2 Management and Marketing Department, Faculty of Business and Economics, Qatar University, Al Tarfa, Doha 2713, Qatar. Accepted 15 April, 2013 The aim of this paper is to evaluate the investment environment in Jordan from the perceptions of the workers in the industrial activity. Data was collected by a questionnaire which depended on five aspects; namely; economic infrastructure, the characteristics of the Jordanian economic environment, labor force, industrial free zones and the Jordan Investment Board and the promotion policies. 70 questionnaires were distributed to the workers of the Jordanian industrial activity out of 120 workers which represent the study sample. 40 questionnaires were valid to statistical analysis, which is equivalent to 57.1% of the study sample. The study used SPSS for analyzing data to estimate the averages, standard deviations, T-test, percentages and frequencies. Statistical analysis showed that the characteristics of the economic infrastructure, the economic investment environment, and the industrial free zones have positive impact on attracting foreign investments. The study highly recommends that in order to improve water supply service, there is a need for greater exploitation of ground water, expanding of current dams and maintaining water piping networks. Another recommendation is reviewing the investment legislation so as to modify the investment encouragement laws which includes a guarantee for more incentives for foreign investments. Key words: Foreign investments, investment environment, economic infrastructure. INTRODUCTION The third world countries have been recently competing to pave the way for attracting foreign investments in order to realize the economic development. The encourage- ment of such investment is related to several factor; providing a stable economic and political environment, a convenient infrastructure, freedom of trade competition, and the guarantee of investment protection. Furthermore, it is essential to provide man power, natural resources and rules that guarantee the intellectual property, invention rights and motives for investors. Jordan is a third world country that has very limited potentials. In the late eighties, Jordan faced many economic crises because of the retreat of external aids and the decrease of the money transferred by Jordanians abroad. Further- more, the exports market of Jordanian products and the demand on Jordanian man power declined. Other reasons of these crises include the deficiency in the Jordanian balance of payment and the general budget, the retreat of gold reserves and foreign currency, the retreat of economic growth, the increase of unemploy- ment, the decline of Jordan Dinar exchange, the increase of inflation and the degradation of the standards of living relative to the individual portion of the gross domestic product (Economic and Social Commission for Western /0’’#)("%(. !&+*’ 1$!% !(!)2!3’%45&#"&5!