10.85 Million ‘Made in Pakistan’ Phones Enter the Market
According to the data for the first four months (Jan-April) 2024, Pakistan manufactured 10.85 million mobile phones locally compared to 0.65 million imported commercially. Official data shows that locally manufactured mobile phones include 6.47 million smartphones and 4.38 million 2G feature phones.
It is pertinent to mention here that the local assembling of mobile phones decreased by around 4% in 2023, owing to the restrictions on opening letters of credit (LCs) for mobile phone parts.
However, the astonishing thing is that despite restrictions, commercial imports of mobile phones went up during the period, according to the official data. Overall, the local industry assembled 21.28 million mobile handsets during 2023 compared to 21.94 million in 2022 and 24.66 million in 2021.
Besides, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.462 billion during the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2023-24. It led to a 209.07%Â growth as compared to the same period of the last fiscal year.
In terms of rupees, the country imported mobile phones worth Rs 414.276 billion during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year and registered 279.52 percent growth when compared to the same period of last year.
