Great News: Samsung, Huawei and Nokia May Manufacture Phones in Pakistan

Samsung, Huawei, and Nokia wish to start manufacturing phones in Pakistan.

According to a local newspaper, the government has decided to formulate a new mobile phone manufacturing policy.

M/s Samsung, M/s Huawei and M/s Nokia want to start manufacturing in Pakistan due to lower labor wages compared to China, well-informed sources in EDB told the newspaper.

High Labor Costs in China

The labor pay in China is very high, i.e., CNY 5,000 (PKR 105,000) for unskilled and CNY 20,000 (PKR 420,000) for the technical workforce, whereas labor and skilled workforce are available in Pakistan at very low remuneration.

They further stated that the mobile devices consist of almost 60 sub-parts manufactured by vendor industry/secondary suppliers. The mobile manufacturing plant costs around Rs. 2 billion.

According to the report, this was disclosed at a meeting of Pakistan Mobile Manufacturers and representatives of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and EDB held on January 31, 2019.

Noman Khalid, Director PTA, informed the participants that due to International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) registration the local manufacturing of mobile devices has increased.

Importing Semi Knock Down Units

He recommended that the Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P), in coordination with relevant stakeholders, should formulate a policy to encourage local manufacturing of mobile devices. Initially, Semi Knock Down (SKD) assembly should be encouraged with the help of tariff-based incentives, the report stated.

However, benefits offered to the SKD assembly should have a cap limit i.e. 22 months. The case study of India can be followed as an example. He further added that incentives should be given to 3G/4G mobile devices.

Companies Currently Assembling Phones in Pakistan

According to Mansoor Khan, the benefits were offered to the industry in 2015 and currently, 23 companies are assembling mobile phones in Pakistan out of which 15 are in Azad Jammu and Kashmir mainly due to tax holiday offered to industry in AJK. He proposed that tax slabs should be formulated according to manufacturing and classification of the industry.

A representative of FBR said that the government has announced amendments to encourage CKD-based manufacturing and on the import of mobile devices in SKD and CBU form.

Working on a Policy

Asim Ayaz, DGM-incharge policy, revealed that EDB policy team is working on a Mobile Phone Policy and hoped that soon Pakistan will see similar success as the automobile sector.

After a detailed discussion, the meeting decided that EDB will liaise with local manufacturers for preparation of draft mobile device policy to encourage local manufacturing of mobile devices initially as SKD assembly and later as CKD assembly operations. In this regard, the industry will submit proposals to EDB.

Via Business Recorder


  • I think it’s impossible, due to terrorism’s impacts in Pakistan.Wish Pakistan luck.Although, high tax duties will also effect this mission.Let’s see what’s happene!

    • CPEC is a game changer, may be due to this reason they have planned to start manufacturing in Pakistan.
      All knows current Chinese telecom how treating their employees, No labor laws but third parties has their own terms and conditions signed from employees. No Increments, No Bonuses. At the time of distribution bonuses, share profit to employees – companies declared poor market conditions, company losses which result to downsizing outsourced employees.
      This is Pakistan – Welcome companies to Pakistan where unskilled labour available at 20-25k and skilled 40-45k and expert gets 70~80k :D

    • O bhai log reh hi rahe hain na Pakistan mein. Mobile plant ka terrorism se kia talluq? Ca‏rs assembly or laptop assembling plants bhi hain unhe to terrorists ne kuch nhi kaha.
      Terrorism wasay bhi 90-95% decrease hochuka hai.

  • Totally fake news like given on Nov. 17, 2017 (five companies to start manufacturing phone in Pakistan). No any single company is assembling Mobile phone in Pakistan, nowadays. All Mobile phone we use are 100% imported from different countries. The time to star Mobile phone manufacturing is so far for us coz any govt. Doesn’t interested in this regard. The duty on imported mobiles is a big part of revenue for our govt./leaders.

  • Interesting.

    Now how many of these local assemblers actually stamp the required Made in Pakistan label? I don’t see any “local” phone in the market.

    Or is this just another tax dodge scheme by the 23 licensees ( heard that “foreign” phones are taxed upto 30-40%, still unclear )?

  • If this is properly executed, its GREAT news for the consumer !

    no nmore overpriced phones from those three then !

  • china will not let those companies to manufacture in pakistan thats for sure otherwise manufacturing in china will get reduced if they start doing in pakistan so they would not want that.

  • Source of this News? Propakistani is now a major contributer of spreading fake news. Well Done ?

  • Interesting. Govt should focus on area based utilities like AJK making it tax free for mobile manufacturing, Balochistan should provide tax free to mineral and petroleum, Sindh should provide tax relaxation to Auto manufacturing and Punjab KPK to Agricultural exports and fruits/Juices/Dairy Etc

  • Stop spreading fake news and misleading Pakistanis, Samsung is setting up the largest mobile phone manufacturing plant in India, and they announced this last year.

    And its not just not the labour cost that effects the market or retail price of any product, please learn how businesses work or atleast hire a writer who understands the business and tech industry.

  • Seems Fake! India has already grabbed that market while our guardians of the state were providing security to our corrupt leaders. Even if this production starts locally; our shameless local investor will ask these big companies to let them(local trader) to open shops to whiten their black money thereby investments will be nil from Nokia, Samsung and some local merchant will make and stamp the vendor. If this is true; the vendor needs to set up their own shops and not cut deals with local mafia.

  • Pakistan heaven as dumping ground for e-Waste particularly in the cellular handset. As the article rightly mentioned about India where the iPhone 6 is now refurbished from scrap with new using all the components to a new OS. Pakistan should also check verify the imports of Samsung handsets which are now assembled/manufactured in India. Besides Vietnam, are strong. The idea with the 4th Generation of Digitalisation on way the country will step early in Digitalisation. Integration and utilising the supply chain network either on ATA Carnet from China, EU, US. With the readiness and clearance of the 5G from respective regulator the country will enter the 4th Generation spectrum.

  • Government is didnt support Pakistani first made car Revo, They were busy to distribute Mehran/Cultus.

  • confuse nation.RIP being Pakistanis.khud par bharosa nahi.wese in jahilon ko itna bhi pata nahi kah imran khan smartphone ki import par tax isliye lagaye thay kah pakistan main hi smartphone plant lagaye jayen.


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