Pakistani Local Mobile Assemblies Can Uplift the Economy as Evident in Last 2 Years

Mobile devices play a crucial part in the nation’s communication and digitization. The annual local demand for mobile devices is approximately 22 million units. Prior to the establishment of the Mobile Device Manufacturing policy, the majority of mobile devices were imported as Completely Built Units. However, now, the trend has turned to local manufacturing. As evident, since January 2021, local mobile manufacturing has created around $300 million in investment and 50,000 employment opportunities. These developments happened after the government implemented a mobile manufacturing policy to promote and entice firms to build their units in Pakistan.

In light of the policy, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) released Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Regulations on January 28, 2021. To date, 31 companies have been granted MDM Authorization, allowing them to produce mobile devices in Pakistan. These companies include Samsung, Nokia, Oppo, TECNO, Infinix, Vgotel, Q-mobile, and many others.

During the calendar year 2022, local manufacturing plants assembled 21.94 million mobile phone handsets, down from 24.66 million in 2021. This reduction can be attributed to difficulties in importing mobile parts due to restrictions on the establishment of letters of credit (LC).

The PTA also reported that local manufacturing plants produced 21.94 million phone handsets in 2022, compared to 1.53 million smartphones imported for commercial purposes.

In 2021, the commercial imports of mobile phone handsets decreased to 10.26 million from 24.51 million in 2020. If we go further into the stats, the 21.94 million locally assembled mobile phones include 13.15 million 2G and 8.79 million smartphones. Moreover, according to PTA data, 56 percent of mobile devices in Pakistan are smartphones and 44 percent are 2G. devices.

Check out? Can Local Mobile Manufacturing Boost Pakistan& Exports? An Insight from Mobile Manufacturing Summit