Economic development has always been and will continue to be the engine that drives the future of any region. As with so many things, there is no such thing as a standstill in a region’s economic development. It either goes forward or loses ground.

So it is here in San Diego. There are many factors that explain why new and old companies alike have made decisions either to begin their business in San Diego, move an existing company here from another location or move out of the region.

Chief among those, theoretically, is the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation. If you look at its literature, this 35-year-old agency’s stated purpose is to serve “as the region’s primary catalyst for a competitive regional economy, taking focused actions to promote an increased standard of living and high quality of life.”

A noble purpose well stated. Who among us that works for a living could find fault with an ambitious organization that commits itself as the catalyst to find and attract new businesses to San Diego County? My only concern is that this organization is trying to catalyze the wrong type of businesses in the wrong locations in our region.

Originally established with its focus on San Diego proper, the EDC later expanded to the county in order to broaden the region’s economic base. Again, the move was a noble idea. EDC’s targets were to be clean industries that wanted to build and occupy campus-style office and production facilities in the affluent suburbs of North County.

Today, the fruit of EDC’s efforts over the years dot several locations throughout our northern suburbs. UTC, Sorrento Mesa, Carmel Del Mar, Carlsbad, Rancho Bernardo, and Poway are but the larger venues. It was relatively easy to lure businesses to these choice locations that were well-served by freeways, housing, schools and other community amenities.

Over the years, EDC hasn’t paid much, if any, attention to downtown San Diego which, too, was growing as a result of massive redevelopment taking place in and immediately surrounding the central business district. Our downtown has become a true urban environment — the center of our region’s business, civic and cultural resources.

In more recent years, downtown is becoming home for tens of thousands of residents who are being lured to the center city’s increased entertainment, retail and tourist attractions. All this heightened interest, however, has not been the result of any proactive efforts on the part of EDC.

That now needs to change. Downtown San Diego is at least a part of the San Diego region — if not its headquarters — and therefore should be included in any “regional” approach to economic development.

We need a comprehensive economic development effort for downtown San Diego for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the increasing lack of developable land in the suburbs. North County is, for the most part, built out. In South County, the developable land for the clean industries originally targeted by EDC is largely spoken for, since much of that area caters to large and more intensive industrial land uses. Nobody has dared equate clean industries with East County locations — which leaves, by default, downtown San Diego. Downtown San Diego has the capacity to accommodate the clean businesses EDC seeks to attract.

It isn’t as if EDC has totally ignored downtown San Diego; it just hasn’t been as effective an advocate as it could be. Sadly, EDC is part of the effort to try to change downtown Diego into a high-technology mecca simply by substituting “Bandwidth Bay” for traditional references to downtown San Diego.

I’m for anything credible that centers economic development on downtown San Diego. All things considered, locating and doing business in downtown San Diego costs less than many suburban locations, even taking into consideration high parking costs. My chief hope is that we concentrate more resources on attracting new and expanding businesses who are suited to do business in downtown San Diego — and leave any reference to our beautiful bay to the Chamber of Commerce, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, pleasure boaters and the Navy.

We don’t have to invent a new slogan, marketing scheme, name or agency to help downtown San Diego become all that it can be. The EDC can partner with existing downtown San Diego organizations to effectively advocate for the economic development of downtown as our region’s primary developable resource.

The Downtown San Diego Partnership comes to mind first. While this organization has a successful track record in advancing downtown, it has been severely limited by a lack of financial resources. EDC receives some of its funding from the city of San Diego to fund economic development. If the city wants to invest directly in efforts that will produce real economic development in the one location where it can take place, I suggest it allocate part of its EDC funding to the Downtown Partnership.

As a city’s downtown goes, so goes the surrounding region. The entire San Diego region needs a viable downtown to prosper. A downtown San Diego marketing effort, funded in part by economic development funds from the city of San Diego, would empower the Partnership to use its solid reputation and expertise to market downtown and by doing so, enhance the economic well being of the entire San Diego region.

All it takes is a little teamwork and a generous dose of common sense.