According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the country’s local mobile handset manufacturing plants have produced 3.94 million mobile phones against 0.36 million commercially imported devices in February 2022. These locally assembled devices comprised 2.38 million 2G and 1.56 million smartphones.
Local Manufacturing of Cellular Phones
This production marks a significant increase of 88% in locally manufactured cellular phones as compared to 2020 with only 13.05 million. As a result, the commercial imports of cell phones declined from 24.51 million (2020) to 10.26 million (2021).
Moreover, the trend of local manufacturing has positively helped PTA’s Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Authorization with the production of 24.66 million phones, including 10.6 million 4G smartphones within its first year of introduction.
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Additionally, the successful administration of the Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) and favorable government policies regarding mobile manufacturing have helped to create a conducive environment for cellular device production in Pakistan. This has further enhanced the national mobile ecosystem and has helped to reduce the counterfeit device market for commercial entities.
A Boost in Pakistan’s Economy
Furthermore, this progress has also enhanced consumers’ trust because of the formulation of standardized legal channels for all sorts of device imports. Likely, the state’s initiative of a mobile manufacturing policy would attract foreign investors and manufacturers to establish their units in Pakistan.
Pakistan Telecommunications companies reported that 900K visitors with mobiles came to Islamabad (those without mobile are separate), while in PMLN really a few thousand entered.
– Imran Riaz Khan@ImranRiazKhan #امربالمعروف— Humaira (@HumairaWajahat) March 29, 2022
The reinforcement of Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDW) Regulations, 2021 helps to ease the process of acquiring a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for the local manufacturers in the country. Similarly, 30 manufacturing units have acquired the license and have produced 10.1 million cellular smartphones while generating 2,000 jobs in 2021.
In addition, Samsung one of the leading smartphone manufacturing companies, Nokia, Oppo, TECNO, Infinix, Vgotel, and Q-mobile have also collaborated with the local manufacturing companies in Pakistan. Moreover, the country has also exported its first-ever cellular smartphone consignment to the United Arab Emirates with the ‘Manufactured in Pakistan’ label.
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Therefore, local cell phone manufacturing can enhance the socio-economic development of the country by creating job opportunities for the people. This development would also help to reduce international dependency on smartphone imports and contribute to the growth of the country’s telecommunication industry.