In the initial ten months of 2023, Pakistan has manufactured or assembled 15.66 million mobile sets domestically, as per the latest data from Pakistan Telecommunication (PTA). The country also commercially imported 1.26 million mobile phones during the same period. The data shows that 92.6% of the phones have been locally assembled/manufactured, highlighting massive reliance on domestic productions. In contrast, 7.4% of the phones have been imported, contributing to the reduction of the country’s import bill. As per PTA’s data, out of the 15.66 million mobile sets, 10.25 million are classified as Second Generation Mobile (2G mobile), commonly known as GSM phones while 1.41 million of these mobile sets are smartphones. The data shows the dominant role of Chinese companies within the top 10 brands actively involved in local manufacturing and assembling of phone sets.

Leading the chart is China’s VGO Tel with the production of 1.96 million phone sets, followed closely by ‘itel’ with 1.89 million sets. Infinix has contributed 1.70 million mobile sets, while Xiaomi’s Redmi follows with 0.92 million phone sets manufactured/assembled, and Tecno has assembled/manufactured 0.89 million mobile sets. In 2022, Pakistan locally manufactured 21.95 million phone sets alongside the commercial imports of 1.53 million phone sets. The leading brand in this race was China’s itel with 3.03 million sets. Similarly, VGO Tel produced 2.40 million sets, and Vivo and Infinix manufactured/assembled 1.72 million sets each in 2022. China’s Tecno and Oppo were also among the top 10 brands each engaging in the assembling/manufacturing of 1.34 million and 1.12 million mobile sets, respectively, according to a report published by Gwadar Pro on Wednesday.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)