ISLAMABAD: The production of mobile phones by local manufacturing plants has surpassed the number of mobile phones imports in the country during Jan-August 2021, as the local production was recorded at 13.05 million sets compared to the imported mobile phone sets of 8.52 million.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) data revealed that this 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 13.05 million phones in a short span of eight months including 5.48 million 4G smartphones.
The successful implementation of Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) along with conducive government policies including the mobile manufacturing policy has created a favourable environment for mobile phone device manufacturing in Pakistan.
It has also contributed positively to the mobile ecosystem of Pakistan by eliminating counterfeit device market providing a level-playing field for commercial entities and has created trust among consumers due to the formulation of standardized legal channels for all sorts of device imports.
The government had introduced a mobile manufacturing policy to encourage and attract manufacturers to establish their units in Pakistan.
The PTA in light of the policy issued MDM Regulations on 28th January 2021. Till now, 26 companies have been issued the MDM Authorisation, enabling them to manufacture mobile phone devices in Pakistan. These companies include renowned brands e.g. Samsung, Nokia, Oppo, TECNO, Infinix, Vgotel, Q-mobile etc.
Commercial imports against manufacturing trends can be seen at the PTA website, the authority added. Nauman Khalid, director Type Approvals and DIRBS PTA said the establishment of 26 manufacturing plants has brought in an investment of over $126 million and created over 10,000 jobs in a short span of seven months.
He said the government of Pakistan introduced Mobile Manufacturing Policy in June 2020 to encourage local manufacturing. Subsequently, the PTA issued MDM Regulations in 2021, a major milestone in the journey towards "Digital Pakistan".
As of August 2021, the PTA has issued the MDM authorisation to 26 companies, including both foreign and local companies with brands such as Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, Nokia, Alcatel, Techno, Infinix, etc. One company has also exported 5,000 "Made in Pakistan" smartphones to the UAE.
Since the implementation of DIRBS, import of mobile devices via legal channels increased by 62 percent with revenue of Rs46.27 billion. In 2020, 38.14 million devices were imported with revenue of Rs54 billon and in 2021 so far 20.91 million devices have been imported through legal channels.
The PTA has blocked 175,000 device IMEIs reported as stolen through DIRBS. The system has also identified and blocked 26.03 million fake/replica mobile devices from use on local networks. Moreover, 880,780 cloned/duplicated IMEIs against 5.28 million MSISDN were identified and blocked.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021