The passage concludes that "this region must find new ways to help business grow."
Why? Because "shoe manufacturing used to be a major local industry, but recently has experienced severe setbacks due to overseas competition, so there is a need for expansion into new manufacturing areas" and "our outdated public policy generally inhibits business growth."
We can see from our breakdown of the argument above that answer choice A is a direct restatement of the main conclusion of the argument, making it the correct answer.
Answer choice D is incorrect because it is specific to manufacturing as opposed to business in general. The fact that business in the region must expand into new areas of manufacturing is a subsidiary conclusion; it is just one example of local industry that needs to be supported by the region and its policies.
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