Jan-July 2021: Number of locally-produced mobile phones surpasses number of imported ones: PTA

ISLAMABAD: The production of mobile phones by local manufacturing plants has surpassed the number of mobile phones imports in the country during Jan-July 2021 as the local production was recorded at 12.27 million compared to the imported mobile phones of 8.29 million.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) stated that this trend reflects a positive uptake on the PTA's Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Authorisation regulatory regime, whereby, local manufacturing within the first year of regime introduction has resulted in production of 12.27 million phones in a short span of seven months including 4.87 million 4G smartphones.

The successful implementation of Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) along with conducive government policies including the mobile manufacturing policy has created a favorable environment for mobile device manufacturing in Pakistan.

It has also contributed positively to the mobile ecosystem of Pakistan by eliminating counterfeit device market providing a level-playing field for commercial entities and has created trust among consumers due to the formulation of standardised legal channels for all sorts of device imports.

It is important to highlight that the Government of Pakistan introduced a comprehensive mobile manufacturing policy to encourage and attract manufacturers to establish their units in Pakistan. The PTA in light of the policy issued Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Regulations on 28th January, 2021.

Till now, 26 companies have been issued MDM Authorisation enabling them to manufacture mobile devices in Pakistan. The companies include renowned brands e.g. Samsung, Nokia, Oppo, TECNO, Infinix, Vgotel, Q-mobile etc. Commercial imports against manufacturing trends can be seen at the PTA website, the authority added.

Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $2.065 billion during 2020-21 compared to $1.369 billion during 2019-20, showing growth of 50.75 percent, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data. The government has approved the Mobile Device Manufacturing policy to promote local manufacturing and assembly of mobile handsets.

According to the sector experts, Pakistan enjoys low cost labour advantage, a reasonably large home market having more than 184 million subscribers, which have increased approximately one percent per month during last one year, 83.3 percent teledensity and efficient Device Identification, Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) in place, which make Pakistan an attractive market for mobile assembly.

The government is all set to make mobile phone manufacturing industry larger than automobile in terms of turnover in few years and employment is expected to grow manifold.

Due to the introduction of the DIRBS, legal imports have increased significantly and local manufacturing has also picked up. The government decided to introduce a comprehensive mobile manufacturing policy to encourage and attract mobile manufacturing players to come to Pakistan and establish their plants.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021