Surging Sales of Smartphones and 3G Subscriptions in Pakistan

Over 1.5 million smartphones and an equal number of 3G subscriptions are being purchased every month in Pakistan, according to data released recently. The number of broadband subscriptions has more than quadrupled from under 4 million in 2013-14 to nearly 17 million in 2014-15 as a result of 3G and 4G rollout in the country last year, according to data released by Pakistan Telecommunications Authority.

Broadband Subscription Data. Source: PTA


3G/4G Expansion:

3G/4G subscriptions in Pakistan soared to 13.49 million, up from 9.83 million in May, according to data from Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA). Telenor led the 3G/4G market with over 4.16 million subscribers, followed by Mobilink (3.65 million 3G subscribers), CMPak (3 million 3G/4G subscribers, and Ufone (2.57 million 3G subscribers). Warid had 106,211 LTE network subscribers at end of June. These carriers have laid thousands of kilometers of fiber to support 3G servicesMobilink alone has fiber optic network that currently spans over 8,000 kilometers.

Soaring Smartphone Sales:

Monthly smartphone sales in Pakistan are averaging 1.5 to 2 million, according to a publication named Mobile Payments Today.  Over 70% of these new smartphones are based on Google's Android operating system.  Rapid growth in smartphones in the country has attracted Chinese company Haier to set up a factory in Lahore to take advantage of the opportunity.

Mobile Broadband Apps:

Several operators are now offering 3G 4G mobile broadband connectivity in over 200 cities and towns across Pakistan. The ubiquity of access is laying the foundation for Pakistan 2.0 with a wide range of apps to improve the lives of Pakistanis. Such apps are starting to appear for education, health care, social networking, ride-sharing, banking, e-commercegovernment services, etc.

It is also bringing in mobile payments companies to allow consumers to pay using direct carrier billing. Centili, a mobile payments processor, has announced its plans to work with Mobilink, Telenor, Zong, Ufone, and Warid, which have a combined 136 million subscribers in Pakistan.

Summary:

Expansion of mobile broadband and increasing sales of smartphones are beginning to help stimulate Pakistan's economy, as are the increasing cement sales from both private and public sector.

Construction work on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is stimulating economic activity in Pakistan as indicated by rising domestic cement demand in the country.  It was up 8% year over year in 2014-15.  Cement sales are considered a barometer of development activity.  A recent assessment by Ruchir Sharma, head of Morgan Stanley's emerging markets, has said Pakistan's economy is growing more than twice as fast as emerging markets other than India and China.  In a piece titled "Bucking stagnation elsewhere, the quiet rise of South Asia",  Sharma particularly mentions the Chinese CPEC investment of $46 billion as a positive for Pakistan. "Pakistan’s manufacturing sector is now growing, due to both increasing electric output and the fact that – like Bangladesh – its young population and labour force is expected to continue expanding for at least the next five years", says Sharma.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

3G 4G Rollout in Pakistan

E-Commerce Growth in Pakistan

Haier Expands to Start Smartphone Production in Pakistan

Pakistan 2.0: Technology Driving Productivity

Public Sector Apps in Pakistan

Online Education in Pakistan

Growing Fiber Connectivity in Pakistan

Comments

Riaz Haq said…
July 2015 IDC report on smartphones in Pakistan:


Shipments of smartphones in Pakistan increased by a massive 124% year on year during the first quarter of 2015, with shipments up 21% when compared with the previous three-month period. That's according to the latest findings from global technology research and consulting firm International Data Corporation (IDC), which attributes the shifting dynamics of the Pakistan mobile market to the deployment of 3G/4G networks across the country and the subsequent rise in demand for devices that are compatible with the new infrastructure.

Pakistan has traditionally been a feature phone market; indeed, just three years ago (2012), 93% of all mobile phone shipments in the country were feature phones since there was no network to support smartphones. Even those consumers that did own smartphones had to be content with only using traditional voice and SMS services. In the last year, however, the market has experienced a drastic shift to the smartphone form factor. According to IDC's Global Mobile Phone Tracker published in Q1 2015, smartphones now account for about 30% of all the devices shipped to Pakistan, up from 25.3% in the previous quarter and from 14.7% in the corresponding period last year. This shift is set to continue, as IDC expects the proportion of smartphones to overtake feature phones by the end of 2017.

The Shift to Smartphones in Pakistan



The rapid shift to smartphones began in 2014 following the deployment of 3G/4G networks in the country. Inevitably, there is now a scrum of vendors trying to get a share of the pie, and as telecom operators deploy infrastructure to the whole country, the level of competition is only expected to increase. Data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) shows that only about 10% of all subscribers in the country are using 3G/4G networks, so the shift to smartphones will gather even more pace as the numbers of 3G/4G subscribers increase.

Another important factor to consider is that mobile phone penetration currently stands at around 75% in Pakistan, meaning there is a sizeable share of the population that has yet to acquire any type of mobile device. Uptake among these first-time buyers is sure to spur the smartphone market's development even further. Meanwhile, dual device ownership is expected to rise, with consumers increasingly acquiring a smartphone in addition to their existing feature phones, not only so they can capitalize on the added benefits of smartphone ownership, but also so they can leverage the on-net savings that telcos may provide for both voice and data usage.

Vendor-Specific Trends

As the above shift is taking place, the market is witnessing an increase in the number of vendors offering different SKUs of devices. QMobile continues to dominate the market with an overall unit share of 58%, leading in both the feature phone and smartphone segments. Nokia and Voice are the other key players, with shares of 17% and 5%, respectively. The market is also witnessing an influx of new vendors.

Despite QMobile's strong lead, IDC expects competition to intensify as other players like Voice, Samsung, Huawei, and Lenovo make inroads into the market. "We expect to see fluctuations in the market's vendor shares as large global players start to establish a stronger foothold in the market and new players try to gain a slice of the action," says Nabila Popal, IDC's research manager for handsets and display solutions in the Middle East and Africa. "Samsung, for example, initially had a hard time in the Pakistan market, but recent changes to its product mix and target price bands have helped it to finally gain traction in the market, recording a 6% share of smartphone shipments in Q1 2015."



https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prAE25731215
Riaz Haq said…
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has expanded its next-generation CharJi EVO wireless broadband services to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s capital Peshawar.

The introduction of CharJi EVO will enable residents of Peshawar to experience Pakistan’s fastest and most reliable 4G LTE wireless broadband service at speed up to 36Mbps.

The company ushered a new era of technological innovation in the country by introducing the next generation ‘CharJi EVO’ in 2014, which is an addition to the 3G EVO range of services already serving the residents of Peshawar and customers nationwide.

The launch ceremony of CharJi EVO services was attended by a large audience of business community, senior government officials, media personalities as well as representatives of IT and education sector.

KP’s Finance Minister Muzafar Said was the chief guest at the occasion.

PTCL Chief Commercial Officer Adnan Shahid, while speaking at the launch ceremony said, “PTCL has always been at the forefront in introducing innovative technologies and services in the country and our fixed and wireless broadband services are acting as a catalyst in transforming the socio-economic landscape of Pakistan.”

“PTCL has always introduced technologies that have helped people improve their lives. Peshawar is a historic city and a strong business hub and CharJi wireless broadband services will open new possibilities of growth and development in the area,” he added further.

CharJi EVO service is available in convenient dongles, Mi-Fi clouds and tablet, providing a powerful internet experience, faster web browsing, HD video streaming, downloads, uploads and low latency (ping) rates for online gaming.

The ease and comfort of CharJi EVO cloud devices with its state of the art Wi-Fi capability and fast internet browsing brings an unparalleled experience, connecting up to 10 Wi-Fi enabled devices simultaneously.

PTCL has launched Pakistan’s first 4G LTE tablet ‘CHARJI EVO TAB’ which provides built-in CharJi connectivity and voice calling feature.

http://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/technology/ptcl-introduces-charji-evo-in-peshawar/
Riaz Haq said…
#Pakistan, the Next #software Hub? 1500 registered #informationtechnology companies, 10,000 IT grads every year. http://nyti.ms/1P0Yfdu

Pakistan’s I.T. sector is carving a niche for itself as a favored place to go for freelance I.T. programmers, software coders and app designers. There are now 1,500 registered I.T. companies in Pakistan, and 10,000 I.T. grads enter the market every year. Energetic members of the middle class educated in Pakistan’s top universities, they have honed their skills at the many hackathons, start-up fairs and expos, digital summits and entrepreneurial events at campuses, software houses and I.T. associations across the country.

Next comes showcasing their skills to a global market in order to grow businesses. So Pakistani freelance programmers flock to global freelance hiring sites such as Upwork, or fiverr.com, where digital employers in the United States, Australia or Britain bid to hire programmers for small software and app projects. On these platforms, hiring someone from Pakistan becomes as easy as hiring someone from Ireland or India, because traditional concerns about security, corruption and invasive bureaucracy in Pakistan do not apply.

The formula is working: the Pakistani programmers market ranks as the No. 3 country for supplying — freelance programmers — behind only the United States and India, and up from No. 5 just two years ago. It ranks in the upper 10 to 25 percent on Upwork’s listing of growth rates for top-earning countries, alongside India, Canada and Ukraine. Pakistan’s freelance programmers already account for $850 million of the country’s software exports; that number could go up to $1 billion in the next several months, says Umar Saif, who heads the Punjab I.T. Board and previously taught and did research work at M.I.T.

The optimism one hears in Karachi and Lahore even withstood a scandal last May, when news broke that Axact, one of Pakistan’s largest I.T. companies, was operating as a fake degree mill. Members of the tight-knit I.T. community reacted at first with fears for Pakistan’s chances to become a major player on the world’s I.T. stage. Perhaps those fears acted as a spur to the authorities, who arrested Axact’s chief within weeks after the scheme was laid bare.

In any event, three days after investigators raided Axact’s offices, Naseeb Networks International, a Lahore-based company that runs the online job marketplace Rozee.pk, announced that it had won a third round of investments, worth $6.5 million, from the European investment firms Vostok Nafta and Piton Capital, bringing the company’s total venture capital funding to $8.5 million. It was the latest in a series of large venture capital investments in Pakistan over the last year and a half.

---------

It’s now also faster and easier for foreign companies to acquire the apps these programmers create, in contrast with negotiating traditional service contracts, and Mr. Saif anticipates that such start-ups will themselves become targets for acquisition by overseas companies.

According to him, venture capital is the one missing ingredient in an enabling environment that the government, universities and software associations are building. Per Brilioth, the managing director of Vostok Nafta Investment, agrees. “The macro indicators and demographics are very strong,” he said, “and the country doesn't seem to get a lot of investor attention, so valuations are reasonable."

Those factors — and the rapidity with which Pakistan’s 200 million people are embracing the Internet on sub-$50 Chinese 3G smartphones — are markers on which Pakistan’s entrepreneurial leaders pin their hopes for the future. They see problems like Axact as bumps in the road as Pakistan builds a haven for I.T. development.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/opinion/bina-shah-pakistan-the-next-software-hub.html?_r=0
Riaz Haq said…
#IMF: #Pakistan’s efforts paying off with strong gdp growth, low inflation, growing FX reserves http://on.wsj.com/1No2sr9 via @frontiermarkets

Pakistan’s efforts to rein in its budget deficit and build its foreign exchange reserves are paying off, the International Monetary Fund says. In an assessment of the South Asian nation’s economic reform program, the multilateral argues that Pakistan “has significantly reduced near-term risks.”

The IMF praised Pakistan’s progress in implementing social programs and its drive to restructure loss-making public enterprises, to advance energy-sector reform and improve the business climate. It said decisive progress in those areas “will help strengthen competitiveness and resilience of the economy and transform Pakistan into a dynamic emerging-market economy.”

Pakistan is set for continued strong economic growth, the IMF said, forecasting that GDP will increase by 4.5% this fiscal year, which runs from July to June. Growth has been “helped by macroeconomic stability, low oil prices, planned improvements in the domestic energy supply, and investment related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” the IMF noted.

The country’s inflation rate dropped to 1.8% in July, but is expected to rise in coming months, if commodity prices stabilize, as expected, the IMF said. The organization also noted that Pakistan narrowly missed some budget deficit, tax revenue and government borrowing targets recently.

Foreign exchange reserves at the state bank rose at a healthy pace, the IMF added, reaching $13.5 billion at the end of June.

The country still has a great deal of work ahead of it, though, the IMF explained: “In the period ahead, consolidating these gains and focusing the reform efforts on overcoming structural challenges still facing Pakistan will be important to achieve higher exports, investment, jobs, and growth.”
Riaz Haq said…
#Smartphone penetration in #Pakistan to jump from 31% now to 55% in 2018. #3G #4G http://tribune.com.pk/story/996032/new-best-friend-smartphones-ready-to-take-over/ …

According to a recent forecast by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which attributed its projection to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Report of 2015, import of smartphones has shown exceptional growth already. The IDC is a global market intelligence firm for Information and Communications Technology markets.

There was a 123% increase in smartphone shipments to Pakistan between January, 2014 and January, 2015, the PTA says, making this one of the fastest growth rates for smartphone imports in Asia, and Africa region, according to the IDC Report, 2015.

Smartphone shipments to Pakistan currently account for 31% of the total cellular mobile handsets imported by the country, the PTA says. The number has increased dramatically from FY12 when it amounted to just 7%.

The PTA’s forecast follows a September 2015 revelation to this newspaper by a major ecommerce player, which had then estimated the country would have 40 million smartphones by December, 2016 if the ecommerce (market) trends continued unabated.

Waves of change

Online retailers have been witnessing massive traffic on their websites since (July, 2014) the launch of third-generation (3G) and 4G services in the country.

With more than 1 million new users jumping on the bandwagon every month, the number of Pakistan’s broadband users skyrocketed to 21 million (of which 85% are 3G and 4G users) at the end of September, 2015. The number was less than 4 million before the arrival of 3G services.


High-speed mobile Internet market (read 3G) continues to grow, creating a huge demand for smartphones, the top selling category across all major ecommerce platforms. In September, more than 2 million users a month were looking to buy a phone online, according to Daraz.pk, an online marketplace.

Boost in demand

The smartphone market had been growing for the past few years because of Wifi Internet services, industry experts say, but the rollout of 3G and 4G services gave it a major boost, resulting in a sharp increase in the demand for devices, which are compatible with these technologies.

Customers demanding LTE handsets was the latest trend in the market soon after the launch of 4G service, according Arsalan Siddiqui of Jibran Electronics, a mobile phone retailer at Feroz Electronic Market.

Retailers at Karachi’s electronics market say the demand for high-end mobile phones surged following the launch of 4G but these handsets are mostly sold to corporate clients. Bulk of their sales still come from low-end devices with prices ranging from Rs10,000 to Rs20,000.

Low-end Chinese mobile phones and local brands such as Qmobile, Huawei, Voice and G5, sell like a hot cake, they say.

In contrast, online retailers say their smartphone sales have gone up mainly in branded category – high-end mobile phones.

According to PTA, 21% browsing of ecommerce websites is done through smartphones or tablets mostly by younger population – those aged between 18 and 34 years of age – taking the online retail through a boom.
Riaz Haq said…
#Pakistan to manufacture cellphones and #smartphones- http://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/economy/pakistan-to-manufacture---cellphones-smartphones …

Rs800 billion to Rs1 trillion telecom revenue estimated in the near future.

Pushed by burgeoning demand, and encouraged by examples of China and India, Pakistan has decided to domestically manufacture cellphone and smart phones.

"Foreign investors, who are seeking investment in the telecom sector are likely to get big incentives," Ministry of Finance sources say. They include prospective investors, particularly from UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Asean. Some of these investors propose to join hands with Chinese companies which have reputed and cost-effective technology and trained manpower. Their pans are to make Pakistan as the production base to feed the Pakistan-Central Asia-Iran, and Middle Eastern and African markets for telecom and cellular products.

Domestically, with a population getting close to 200 million in Pakistan itself, there is a huge big market for these new, hand held sets as their demand is equally strong both in the urban as well as rural areas, like far away Gilgit-Baltistan on the Chinese border in the north and Chaman in the south, bordering Iran.

Beside China, which is a big suppler of mobile phones through official-channels imports and trade, thousand more of the mobs, smart phones, and the rest of these telecom products are smuggled duty-free into Pakistan every week.

"The decision has been made by our Ministry of IT and Telecom, Minister of State Mrs Anusha Rehman told this writer.

"As soon as our domestic manufacturing starts, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government would have fulfilled one more promise to provide cheaper products to people, expand local manufacturing and ensure more jobs to Pakistanis," she also said.

The immediate steps to be taken are to float Expression of Interest (EoIs) for local manufacturing of mobile phones and smart meters under he revival and revitalisation plans of Telephone Industry of Pakistan (TIP) - the factory built by Seimens of Germany. It was the first factory which started making telephone apparatus and later on full fledged telephone exchanges and telecom equipment at Haripur in Khyber Pukhtunistan Province in 1950s. It is called of Mother of All Telecom products. This state-run factory has recently performed poorly both financially and production-wise.

IT and Telecom Ministry sources say after the recent launch of $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) prospects of Chinese investment in Seimens have brightened. It may run in public-private partnership mode, says Azmat Ali Ranjha, secretary, Ministry of IT & Telecoms. When it resumes working in that mode, the plant will start manufacturing mobile phones and smart meters. Zia-ul-Haq, managing director of Seimens says an EoI is expected to be submitted soon.

When the prospective investors look at the demand within the region and Pakistan, itself, it is huge - and still rapidly growing. Shipments of smartphones in Pakistan massively surged by 214 per cent on year-on-year basis during the first three moths of 2015 compared to the last year, says the just unveiled report of the International Data Corporation (IDC).

"The shifting dynamics of the Pakistan mobile market to the deployment of 3G/4G networks across the country and the subsequent rise in the demand of devices that are compatible with the infrastructure," according to the report.

IDC report further said Pakistan has traditionally been a feature phone market; indeed just three years ago in 2012, around 93 per cent of all mobile phone shipments in the country were feature phones since here was no network to support smartphones.
Riaz Haq said…
Share of #smartphones in devices imports in #Pakistan jumps to 30% in 2016 from 7% in 2012. #3G #4G

http://www.brecorder.com/pakistan/business-a-economy/292097-share-of-smartphones-in-devices-import-touches-30pc-mark.html

Smartphones have registered around 30 percent share in overall cellular mobile devices imported in the country during last year which was only 7 percent in 2012.

In next two years, smartphones are expected to cross 55% of mobile phone imports in Pakistan as their adoption is expected to grow further due to expanding 3G and 4G networks.

A report issued by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) revealed that smartphone has become a major source for innovation and new age of enhanced mobile phone use in personal life.

With introduction of larger screen-sizes, consumers are finding smartphones a convenient way to complete many activities what they used to do manually or through desktops.

Therefore, larger screen phones are an accelerator for increasing adoption o smartphone.

Companies are developing their mobile websites, which will further enhance consumer experience on smartphones.

Greater functionality, rich features and enhanced interfaces make the consumer experience on smartphones much more attractive than the features available on a desktop.

The report said share of internet activities through smartphones will grow in near future.Smartphones are more convenient to use and the younger generation has quickly adapted to use of smartphones.

The fall in smartphone prices and mobile data cost has also increased the adoption of smartphones in developing countries.

According to GSMA Intelligence data forecast, global smartphone adoption is expected to increase massively in coming years particularly in developing markets.Smartphone penetration in Asia- Pacific region has reached around 40 % in 2014, and forecast is that this will rise to 65 % by 2020.

Similarly, worldwide smartphone penetration was 50%, which is expected to increase to over 73% by 2020.

Availability of next generation mobile services after the auction of 3G and 4G spectrum in Pakistan in April 2014 has rapidly increased the adoption of smartphone in the society.During 2015, 123 percent increase in smartphone shipment to Pakistan.

Cellular mobile operators have also collaborated with smartphone manufacturers to promote smartphone usage in Pakistan.Companies have also started developing mobile apps and mobile websites keeping in view the fast adoption of smartphones in the country, which will increase the smartphone usage in future.
Riaz Haq said…
Over 1 million new subscribers sign on to 3G/4G services in Pakistan in May 2016, according to Pakistan Telecommunications Authority

3G/4G subscriptions have more than doubled in less than a year, from 14,614,411 in July 2015 to 29,748,666 in May 2016.

http://www.pta.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=269:telecom-indicators&catid=124:industry-report&Itemid=599


The number of 3G/4G subscriptions increased from 28,676,081 at the end of April 2016 to 29,748,666 at the end of May 2016, an increase of 1,072,505 subscribers in the month of May 2016.

PTA said 544,803 phone users switched to 3G services on the Mobilink network, 255,048 on Telenor network, 150,990 on Zone network and 47,147 mobile phone users moved to 3G services on Ufone network in May.


Zong recorded new subscription of 45,737 users on 4G network, while Warid registered new subscription of 28,860 users on LTE (4G) network in May 2016.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1124334/subscriptions-3g4g-users-3-74-growth-slowing/
Riaz Haq said…
Pakistani farmers to be given five million smartphones

Five million smartphones will be given to farmers in Pakistan in an effort to improve knowledge of modern farming techniques, an official has said.
The first phones would be delivered in October, said Punjab Information Technology Board chairman Dr Umar Saif.
Advice from experts would also be distributed via the devices.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37231603


m-Agriculture An emerging field to Revive Agriculture in Pakistan


Telenor Pakistan is the leading operator of Pakistan that is working aggressively in creating a digital society in Pakistan. It has also taken up an initiative to improve the agriculture sector and has introduced Khushal Zamindar mobile agriculture service. This service strives to endow farming households by improving access to well-timed and actionable information for viable impact through better yields.

Mobile apps are offering quicker and easier access to information to farmers in local languages that have made significant improvement on the currently available resources
The service offers access to agricultural advisory information and news through IVR that are sent via SMS or OBD alerts that inform the user twice a day. Another initiative regarding m-agriculture is Bakhabar Kisaan. It a project of both Pakistan NARC and Switch Communication Pvt. Ltd. Switch Communication Pvt. Ltd has generated a platform for farmers which would be reachable over the Telecom Medium by every farmer of Pakistan.

By the help of this platform farmers will have access to the modern farming techniques, cures of diseases, amount of fertilizer to be used for a specific crop and all other information which is required by farmers to surge the yield and productivity.

Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) has also played an important role in the advancement of m-Agriculture. It has developed an app AgriSmart for effective agricultural developments. Whereas, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is also quite active in instilling smart technology in the country.


https://www.phoneworld.com.pk/m-agriculture-an-emerging-field-to-revive-agriculture-in-pakistan/

Govt to provide 30,000 smartphones among BISP beneficiaries

The government would provide around 30,000 smartphones with Rs 250 balance per month among Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) beneficiaries, considering importance to enhance financial and digital inclusion.

The smartphones having 3G services would be provided in un-served and under-served areas of Balochistan and FATA under a programme, which would be funded by Universal Service Fund (USF), as the government has upgraded its scope.

The distribution of smartphones among the BISP beneficiaries with the launch of upcoming broadband projects for providing 3G services in Balochistan and FATA.

http://dailytimes.com.pk/islamabad/22-Aug-16/govt-to-provide-30000-smartphones-among-bisp-beneficiaries
Riaz Haq said…
#Samsung starts producing mobile phones in Pakistan. #Pakistan imported #smartphones worth $644.673m in first 4 months (July-October) of 2021, up from $557.961m during the same period of last year, registering a growth of 15.54%. - DAWN.COM

https://www.dawn.com/news/1661220


KARACHI: One of the world’s largest manufacturers of mobile phones, Samsung, has finally started production in Pakistan, lifting hopes of the authorities and the industry that this would cut down the import bill of the country in the months to come.

The development came to light on Tuesday at a meeting of the company’s top managers with the Senators who visited the production site in line with the plan to receive a briefing on the growing new sector and challenges ahead for the cellphones manufacturing industry in Pakistan.

“We were informed that Samsung has formally started its production,” Faisal Subzwari, chairman of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Industries and Production, told Dawn.

He headed a delegation of members of the Senate panel which visited Samsung’s production unit and an auto manufacturing plant, and held a meeting with the management of Export Processing Zone.


The company aims to manufacture around 3m handsets every year

“It’s really good to know that the company has started production within a short span of four months,” Mr Subzwari said. “We visited the production facility which was designed on modern lines and obviously the local manpower, support of local industry and conducive environment provided by the government led to such achievement. But still I believe that we need to move forward from just growing in the assembling area to localisation of the industry.”

The country has witnessed robust growth in local production of cellular phones. During the first 10 months of this year, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) data says, the production of mobile phones by local manufacturing plants has almost doubled to 18.87 million against the import of mobile phones which stood at 45m.

However, despite the increase in local production of mobile phones, the import remained on a higher side. The PTA data says that mobile phones worth $644.673m were imported during the first four months (July-October) of 2021 compared to $557.961m during the same period of last year, registering a growth of 15.54 per cent.

The industry believes that it may take time to achieve the desired results but with the fresh start in an absolutely new industrial avenue, things have finally started moving in the right direction.

“With production of around 250,000 to 300,000, we aim to produce around 3m cellphones every year,” Mohammad Ali Tabba, chief of the Lucky Group which partners with Samsung to produce cellphones in Pakistan, told Dawn. “The whole production line is manual with no robotic assistance. So you can imagine how much workforce is required offering employment in this absolutely new area of engineering in Pakistan.”

He agreed that the country needed to move towards localisation from its current status of assembling industry and believed it was more the role of the industrial sector than the government to go for modification and compatibility.

“It’s not only the local production of cellphones but also a host of opportunities which it brings. From employment to investment and from export opportunities to local capacity building, it carries immense potential,” said Mr Tabba.

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