ISLAMABAD: The local manufacturing plants have manufactured/ assembled 15.61 million phone handsets during the first eight months (January-August) of 2022 compared to 1.21 million imported commercially, says Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

The local manufacturing plants manufactured/ assembled 0.67 million mobile phones in August 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. an increase of 88 percent.

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 15.61 million mobile phones handsets include 8.85 million 2G and 6.76 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 the local production of mobile phones, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $101.864 million during the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year 2022-23.

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data shows that on a month-on-month (MoM) basis mobile phone imports registered 62.51 percent growth and stood at $63.060 million in August 2022 when compared to $38.804 million in July 2022.

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 the 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.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022