Govt Decides to Revive TIP for Local Smartphone Manufacturing

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (IT&T) Thursday decided to float Expression of Interest (EoI) for local manufacturing of mobile phones and smart meters under the revival and revitalization plan of Telephone Industry of Pakistan (TIP).

A meeting of TIP presided over by the State Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rehman held to discuss matters related to revitalization of TIP.

According to sources, serious concerns were expressed about the performance of the organization. It was observed that TIP has become non-functional as its annual revenue has gone down drastically to about Rs 20 million from Rs 700 million in the recent past, officials sources revealed.

‘TIP is a State Owned Enterprise (SOE) currently running in losses and draining an average Rs 500 million a year for salary support. It is currently is on the privatization agenda of  the Federal government.’ – an official.

TIP’s Revival is the Need of the Hour

Earlier some Chinese companies had termed it a dead and inaccessible organization while considering its performance and location where it’s situated. However, after the launch of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, prospects are visible to investors as the route will be passing from the same area and have shown interest to review the project on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. Sources said that a Chinese company has also appraised Information Technology minister about its interest recently.

The meeting was attended by Federal Secretary IT Azmat Ali Ranjha, Member Telecom Muddasar Hussain, Member HR/IT Tahir Mushtaq, Member Legal Ameena Sohail and MD TIP Zia-ul-Haq and other senior officials from MoIT & TIP.

After thorough deliberations, the meeting agreed that the TIP management would prepare EoI inviting interest for local manufacturing of mobile phones and smart meters at TIP. The meeting was informed that TIP has adequate land of 432 kanal and infrastructure besides a skilled manpower, therefore an EOI for the purpose needs to be floated soon to materialize the revitalization plan. Local smartphone manufacturing can empower communities and increase employment rate as well.

The Minister was apprised by the Managing Director TIP Zia-ul-Haq that extension of contracts of 122 employees working in TIP schools & hospitals have been granted till 30th June, 2016 in compliance with the directions and approval granted by the TIP Board earlier. It was further appraised that Riaz Ahmad & Co. Chartered Accountancy firm has been appointed as “Auditor” by completing all codal formalities and approval in this regard has already been accorded by the TIP Board.


  • Well too late decision but not too late, PTCL Importing DSL Routers from China, whereas have all skilled labor in TIP to produce such products., but who cares for Local Product.

  • Oh remember quite sometime ago they made the landline phones for ptcl,
    This initiative needs aggressive support , legislation , will power, otherwise most likely it will be buried under the files !

        • its the speed and our place, you and I know that.
          when they say Pak manufactured 52 JF-17s in Kamra, I think, engineers are wandering for jobs (not good ones, only jobs) and still Pak is manufacturing airplanes!!
          If all engineers are hired then Pak must be sending 52 Mars missions a year!!

          #sarcasm [it all depends who is manufacturing JF-17s :D]

          • hmm …. no doubt about that.
            its v.sad tho. we could do so much … but the platform is just not there :/

          • Well, Pakistan military is technically very good buy lacks resources (monetory) which are required for innovation. Just look at military backed technical institutions just as example.
            POF (Pakistan Ordinance Factory) has made remarkable innovations in this field.

  • Every effort will be useless because most of the world’s used garbage smart phones will keep swarming the markets and china will throw cheaper product. Import and IT policy needs to be adressed as well if Pakistan ever wants to start local manufacturing.

  • Not sure if they have done their math completely but smart meters is a totally valid market as they have an experience of manufacturing energy meters since 1994. I doubt they added any new product in their line since 2001 after Digital Public Exchanges.

    A very profitable and enormous industry destroyed initially by second hand German telephones and then Chinese Sets. Same happened to our wall switch industry and now you can only find cheap switches in the market that don’t last long.

    Thanks to my teachers and mentors that I have visited TIP and Telecom Staff College in Haripur twice, and I believe it’s a big asset and at a very lovely location. The area is also surrounded by various universities like UET Taxila, GIKI etc. I believe if they can put some smart and intelligent brains behind this suggested revival, it can open significant opportunities for unemployed engineers and general local workers in KPK and Pakistan in general.


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