Our business development activities support local and regional economic development by enabling the creation of jobs, the generation of streams of income (e.g., property tax revenues) and the accumulation of wealth through diverse economic activities. The emphasis on job creation and income-generating activities enables economic development functions to be demarcated by economic sectors and a focus on specific geographic areas. From this standpoint, our economic development mission is to generate economic activity by attracting businesses to locate in a particular geographic area. The recruitment and retention of businesses to a particular geographical location is a prominent feature of the economic development function which is usually achieved by promoting the unique characteristics of an area. The businesses typically recruited to an area (usually with subsidies and incentives, etc.) are the ones identified as potentially those that will generate the most economic benefits for the geographic area. Unlike business development, economic development originates in the public sector from public organizations such as local governments primarily because the beneficiaries are the people living in the community or particular geographic area. The community of people located in the geographic area receive the economic activity generated by economic development. Thus, the people in the community drive the economic development process.