This article treats of a research that investigated the effective socioeconomic contribution of the strategies to attract the productive capital for the industrial section in the Northeastern states during the decade of 1990. The study had as general objective to evaluate the effects of the government strategies gone back to the attraction of new industrial investments on the variable income of the Index of Human Development (IDH) of the states of Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco in the nineties. Of historical, exploratory and descriptive character, the research adopted the procedures of indirect documentation, documental research and bibliographical research, leaning in the documental analysis technique. A paradoxical relationship was verified in the three approached states. The municipal districts that presented growth in IDH-M income received insignificant portions of the industry invested amount; exhibited unsatisfactory evolution those that absorbed most of the invested volume. It was concluded, that it is not possible to establish a direct relationship between the studied strategies and the evolution of IDH.