Aitizaz Hassan

The manufacturing of mobile phone sets is on the rise in Pakistan as 18.14 million sets have been manufactured in the country during the first 10 months of the current calendar year, WealthPK reports. The incentives provided by the government to manufacturers of mobile phone sets seem to have started bearing fruits. Of the total mobile phone sets manufactured in the current calendar year, 7.63 million were smartphones and 10.51 million were 2G devices.

Source: PTA

According to the official data of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), 1.44 million mobile phone sets were assembled in the country during October 2022 compared to 1.09 million devices in September 2022, registering a growth of 32.1%. Pakistan imported 1.29 million mobile phone sets in the first 10 months of the ongoing year. The country imported 50,000 mobile phone sets in October 2022 compared to 30,000 in September 2022, showing an increase of 66%.

Source: PTA

The data shows that 0.39 million smartphones were manufactured in the country in October 2022 compared to 0.48 million in September. Also, 1.05 million 2G devices were manufactured in October 2022 in the country as compared to 0.61 million in September 2022, posting an increase of 72%. According to PTA data, 55% of smartphones and 45% of 2G devices currently run on Pakistan’s network.

Among the local companies, the itel remains on the top by assembling 2.46 million mobile phone sets, followed by VGO TEL with 1.87 million devices, vivo with 1.55 million sets, Infinix with 1.52 million units, NOKIA with 1.26 million mobile phone sets, OPPO with 1.16 million devices, Samsung with 1.11 million sets and E-TACHI with 0.98 phones. QMobile and TECHNO assembled 0.97 million mobile phone sets each.

Pakistan manufactured 24.66 million mobile phone sets during the calendar year 2021 compared to 13.05 million in 2020, indicating an increase of 88%. The commercial imports of mobile phone handsets stood at 10.26 million in 2021 compared to 24.51 million in 2020. An official said that PTA introduced the local manufacturing regulations in January 2021 and since then, 30 plants have been authorised for 10 years to manufacture mobile phone sets.

The uptake of local manufacturing has shown a very optimistic pattern with 24 million phone sets manufactured in 2021 and 16.7 million phones from January to September 2022. The official said that commercial import of mobile phone sets showed a decline after an increase in the local manufacturing of the devices conforming to international standards and offering quality as well as affordability.

He said that the reason for the successful manufacturing of mobile phone sets in Pakistan was the implementation of the “devices identification, regulation and blocking system” (DIRBS), introduced by PTA in 2019. The system led to control over the import of grey handsets besides providing incentives to manufacturers. “The successful implementation of DIRBS and the government policy of offering tax incentives to manufacturers are key factors in this positive uptake,” the official told WealthPK.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk