The purpose of a North Carolina Enterprise Corporation shall be to promote, stimulate, develop, and advance economic prosperity and stimulate job creation in North Carolina's rural areas primarily through mezzanine finance investments in Qualified North Carolina Businesses. To stimulate development broadly across the State, a North Carolina Enterprise Corporation, to the maximum extent feasible consistent with sound business practices, will make mezzanine financing and other types of financing available to small businesses and to businesses located throughout all the rural areas of North Carolina. (1987 (Reg. Sess., 1988), c. 882, s. 1.)