ISLAMABAD: The local manufacturing plants have manufactured/assembled 14.08 million mobile phone handsets during the first six months (January-June) of 2022 compared to 1.14 million imported commercially, says the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The local manufacturing plants have manufactured/assembled 1.67 million mobile phone handsets in June 2022. The manufactured/assembled mobile phones handsets by local manufacturing plants during the calendar year 2021 stood at 24.66 million compared to 13.05 million in 2020, i.e. 88 percent increase. The commercial imports of mobile phones handsets stood at 10.26 million in 2021 compared to 24.51 million in 2020, revealed the official data of the PTA.
The locally manufactured/assembled 14.08 million mobile phones handsets include 8.06 million 2G and 6.02 million smartphones. Further as per the PTA data, 54 percent mobile devices are smartphones and 46 percent 2G on Pakistan network.
However, despite the increase in local production of mobile phones, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.978 billion during the fiscal year 2021-22, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The overall telecom imports into the country during the period under review i.e. fiscal year 2021-22 increased by 3.52 percent by going up from $2.593 billion in July-June 2020-21 to $2.684 billion during the same period of last period.
On a month-on-month basis, imports of mobile phones into Pakistan decreased by 76.52 percent during June 2022 and remained $32.221 million when compared to $137.213 million imported in May 2022, the PBS data revealed.
On a year-on-year basis, mobile phones witnessed 84.26 percent negative growth when compared to $204.677 million in June 2021.
The successful implementation of Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) along with conducive government policies including the mobile manufacturing policy has created a favourable 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 standardized legal channels for all sorts of device imports.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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