“It is worth mentioning that Pakistan has become a 4G smartphone exporter in such a short period of time. “I would like to applaud Airlink Communications for playing an important part in this process and exporting their first batch of 1500 locally produced smartphones to the UAE,” said Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment. After the existing government approved the Mobile Device Manufacturing Policy last year, mobile manufacturing in Pakistan began.
— Abdul Razak Dawood (@razak_dawood) September 25, 2021 The policy’s goal was to assure localization and integration of mobile phone parts, as well as to promote investment in mobile device production in Pakistan. The program provides numerous tax breaks for the manufacture of mobile devices, with the goal of enticing firms to set up a plant in Pakistan. In August of this year, Pakistan became a 4G smartphone exporter by shipping the first batch labelled ‘Manufactured in Pakistan’ to the UAE. Pakistan had sent the first shipment of 5,500 mobile sets of 4G smartphone to UAE produced by Inovi Telecom. It is worth noting that Abdul Razak Dawood, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce, has said that Pakistan may become a mobile phone exporting country by January 2022. He emphasised that online export and e-commerce are other factors that may be incorporated into this strategy for more productive results. Flexible smartphone screens, he believes, will also play an important part in the future of technology. Following the implementation of the new Mobile Device Manufacturing Policy by the current administration, numerous mobile manufacturers approached the government and showed interest in establishing factories in Pakistan. Samsung, for example, is one of these firms that has collaborated with Lucky Cement Limited to establish an assembly facility in the country to produce smart mobile phones locally. The yearly handset market in Pakistan is around 45 million units, with approximately 32 million units imported. The country produces 13 million units on its own. According to import statistics from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the value of the mobile set market in Pakistan is about US$2.5 billion (PBS).
