This subpart outlines Agency policies and authorizations and sets forth procedures for making grants to provide technical assistance for business development and conduct economic development planning in rural areas. The purpose of this program is to promote sustainable economic development in rural communities with exceptional needs by:
(a) Promoting economic development that is sustainable over the long term through local effort without subsidies or external support and that leads to improvements in quality as well as the quantity of economic activity in the community;
(b) Catalyzing economic development projects by providing critical investments that enable effective development projects to be undertaken by rural communities that, with the Rural Business Opportunity Grants (RBOG) assistance, will be able to identify their needs and take full advantage of available resources and opportunities;
(c) Focusing assistance on priority communities (defined in Sec. 4284.603); and
(d) Sponsoring economic development activities with significant potential to serve as examples of ``best practices'' that merit implementation in rural communities in similar circumstances.