PTA claims 3.94m smartphones were produced domestically in February
According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), local manufacturers assembled 3.94 mn cellphone phone units in Feb 2022, as against to 0.36m commercially imported
Local manufacturers assembled cellphone units total of 24.66 mn in the calendar year 2021, up from 13.05 mn in 2020, representing an 88% increase.
As per PTA’s official figures, commercial imports of Cell phone Units amounted to 10.26 mn in 2021, down from 24.51 mn in 2020.
The 3.94 million domestically manufactured Cell phone units include 2.38 mn 2G and 1.56 mn smartphones. According to PTA figures, 53% of mobile devices in Pakistan are smartphones, while 47% are 2G.
Based on the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). Despite the rise in local manufacturing, Pakistan imported cell phones costing $1.411 bn in the first 8 months (July-February) of 2021-22, compared to $1.311 bn in the same time last year, a 7.63% increase,
As per Pakistan Telecommunication Authority statistics, the domestic manufacturing trend indicates a good uptake on the PTA’s Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Authorization regulatory regime, with local manufacturing resulting in the production of 24.66m phones in a short period of 1 year, including 10.06m 4G mobile phones, within the 1st year of regime introduction.
The effective implementation of the Device Identification, Registration, and Blocking System (DIRBS), as well as supportive govt regulations, like the mobile manufacturing policy, has provided a suitable atmosphere for smartphone manufacture in Pakistan.
It has also significantly impacted Pakistan’s mobile ecosystem by eliminating the counterfeit device market, providing a fair playing field for commercial commodities, and building consumer trust through the development of standardised legal routes for all types of phone imports.
The government implemented a mobile manufacturing strategy in order to promote and attract firms to set up Units in Pakistan.
The PTA bolstered this influence by adopting the Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Rules, 2021, which simplified the procedure of acquiring a No-Objection Certificate (NoC) for the manufacturing and domestic assembly of cellphones in Pakistan. So far, 30 companies have secured licences, which generated 10.1m Mobile phones in 2021 and produced 2,000 jobs.
In partnership with local partners, Samsung also entered the domestic manufacturing market. Pakistan achieved history by exporting the first-ever shipment of smartphones to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the label “Manufactured in Pakistan.”
