Pakistan to start assembling mobile phones soon

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan would soon start assembling mobile phone handsets as Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has already approved the policy to promote local manufacturing of the product.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet approved the Mobile Device Manufacturing Policy to promote local manufacturing and assembly of mobile handsets in May, last year.

Under the policy, tax rates for high-end mobile sets have been increased while tax rates for low-end handsets have been either reduced or eliminated.

An official of Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications said, IT exports registered 40 per cent increase during last six months. Exports remittances inflow target for 2020-23 was US $5 billion.

He said IT was growing at a faster rate, earning valuable foreign exchange, creating high paying jobs, improving national productivity and quality of life through innovative technology solutions.

This could be garnered from the fact that IT & IT enabled Services (ITeS) exports remittances comprising computer services and call center services had surged to US $1.230 billion at a growth rate of 23.71% in the FY 2019-20 in comparison to $994.848 million during the same period despite current global economic challenges.

IT & IT enabled Services (ITeS) export remittances, including telecommunication, computer and information services had risen to $763.060 million at a growth rate of 39.03% during July-November of FY 2020-21 in comparison to $548.830 million during July-November of FY 2019-20, he added.

He said the number of PSEB registered IT & ITeS companies as of November, 30 2020 was 2,746 compared to 2,121 valid registrations as of November, 2019. North America, UAE and UK were currently the largest markets for Pakistan’s IT Industry, he said.

He said Pakistan’s IT sector exported products and services to over 100 countries and counts world’s largest entities among its regular clients. It was the largest net service export industry in Pakistan’s economy, he added.

He said Pakistan’s IT sector had the bandwidth to provide state of the art IT products and services and thus had the potential to significantly boost much needed foreign exchange earnings for Pakistan.