1.   A silent auction featured many items donated by local businesses.

2.   Corrupt officials were shaking down local business owners.

3.   If rents continue to rise, many local businesses May Decide to relocate.

4.   In each city a project director oversees the program in coordination with the school district and an advisory board of local businesses.

5.   Inner-city degradation requires the responsible confidence of local business to plan and invest in schemes of regeneration.

6.   It aids the advent of multinationals, which hampers the development of local businesses.

7.   Local bureaucracies could easily hin-der foreign companies and help the local businesses they had hoped to compete with.

8.   Local businesses have been buffeted by the troubled economy.