Pakistan Manufactured 3.94 Million Mobile Phones in February 2022

Local mobile handsets manufacturing plants manufactured 3.94 million mobile phones against 0.36 million commercially imported ones this February, according to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

These mobile phones that were locally manufactured/assembled in February include 2.38 million 2G and 1.56 million smartphones. As per the PTA’s data, 53 percent were smartphones and 47 percent use 2G on Pakistani networks.

The locally manufactured/assembled mobile phones in 2021 were 24.66 million as compared to 13.05 million in 2020, indicating an 88 percent increase. Also, official data from the PTA showed that the commercial imports of mobile phones handsets were 10.26 million in 2021 as compared to 24.51 million in 2020.

Despite the increase in the local production of mobile phones, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.411 billion during the first eight months (July-February) of 2021-22 against $1.311 billion in the same period last year, registering a growth of 7.63 percent, irrespective of the increase in local manufacturing, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The PTA data revealed that the local manufacturing trend reflects a positive uptake on the PTA’s Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Authorization regulatory regime whereby local manufacturing within the first year of regime introduction has resulted in the production of 24.66 million phones, which included 10.06 million 4G smartphones.

The successful implementation of the Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) and conducive government policies, including the mobile manufacturing policy, have created a favorable environment for mobile device manufacturing in Pakistan. This has contributed positively to the local mobile ecosystem by eliminating the counterfeit device market to provide a level-playing field for commercial entities.

This development has also boosted consumers’ trust because of the formulation of standardized legal channels for all sorts of device imports.

Furthermore, the government had introduced a mobile manufacturing policy to encourage and attract manufacturers to establish their units in Pakistan. The PTA reinforced this impact by issuing the Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Regulations, 2021, to ease the process of obtaining a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for the manufacturing and local assembly of mobile phones in Pakistan.

So far, 30 companies have acquired licenses and produced 10.1 million smartphones in 2021 while creating 2,000 jobs.  It is noteworthy that Samsung has also joined the local manufacturing market in collaboration with local partners.

Moreover, Pakistan has made history by exporting its first-ever smartphone consignment to the United Arab Emirates with the ‘Manufactured in Pakistan’ tag.