Abstract: The main purpose of this research is to study the evolution process and spatial disparities of foreign investment in cities and counties along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province after 1990 year. By studying of standard deviation and warp coefficient of foreign investment in this region, three stages of foreign investment are divided .These three stages are the expanding stage(1990/1993—1999), the dropping stage（1999—2001）and the high rising stage (after 2001). The spatial disparity of foreign investment distribution in this region and its causes are also analyzed with the aid of Factor analysis in which 36 counties and cities of this region are chosen as the case. The four factors are abstracted from 14 varibles and the first twins are general economic factors and they are more important than the laters . The results suggest that the regional disparities of foreign investment are mainly resulted from the difference in geographic and human situations and the regional policies to attract foreign investment should focus on improving these economic factors.

Key words: investment environment, Factor Analysis, temporal-spatial structure, counties and cities along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province