Raising minimum wage levels is not likely to curb worker deficit, nor is it a big concern in China's export manufacturing industry. But other factors are.

The persistent shortage of labor in China's eastern manufacturing provinces has led suppliers and local governments alike to implement various measures to fill the empty positions. One of the loudest policies is the push to raise basic monthly salaries across the major export hubs along the coast to attract workers from inland provinces. This step, however, may not alleviate the shortfall as a tight labor market has already inflated actual wages.

Escalating production costs in China's coastal manufacturing hubs are pushing some suppliers to relocate to the central and western provinces.

The Pearl and Yangtze River Delta regions may soon lose their monopoly over China's export manufacturing sector. Rising costs and the worsening labor shortage are driving companies in these coastal areas to relocate production facilities to the interior.

Although the shift started mid-2004, the trend gained pace in 2007, when rapid economic growth in the west surpassed that in the east. Companies leaving Guangdong, Zhejiang and other coastal provinces are now setting up new production bases in Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Shanxi and Sichuan to take advantage of lower worker and land expenditure, among other benefits.

Despite growing calls from trade partners, exchange rate flexibility will be probable only after economic conditions stabilize.

China may be facing great compulsion to widen its currency conversion band, but exporters are confident the government will not bow to pressure anytime soon.

The country's central bank has been working to maintain a 6.80 exchange rate between the yuan and the US dollar since mid-2008 to ease the effects of the global downturn on exporters. Prior to that, the yuan had appreciated from 8.27 to the US dollar in July 2005 to about 6.83 by July 2008.

More manufacturers jump on the 'green' wagon amid stricter export regulations, growing alternatives and rising demand.

Treading the "green" path is on the rise among manufacturers in China, albeit at different levels of adoption. Be it in the garments, jewelry, stationery, paint or consumer electronics industries, more companies are adopting ecologically safe materials, including recycled substitutes.