ISLAMABAD: After establishing manufacturing/ assembly units in the country, Pakistan has exported 120,000 mobile phone sets in the current month to various markets in the middle east and Africa.
The export ceremony of locally manufactured mobile phones was held here Wednesday at PTA headquarters to mark Inovi Telecom’s achievement of exporting 120,000 “Manufactured in Pakistan” mobile phones to United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Addressing the ceremony Member (Finance) PTA, Muhammad Naveed and Member (Compliance & Enforcement) PTA, Dr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar extended their support for the development of a mobile device manufacturing ecosystem in Pakistan.
It may be mentioned here that this is the second consignment exported by Inovi Telecom Pvt. Ltd since the company was granted mobile device manufacturing license in April, 2021, it is also the only Pakistani company to export mobile sets from Pakistan.
According to the company the current order was received in October this year and the deliveries were made in December, to be sold in the middle east as well in the African markets.
However, CEO Inovi Telecom Zeeshan Mian Noor, expressed concerns that the export in piecemeal will not benefit the mobile manufacturing sector of the country and a regular export orders was essential for the growth of the industry.
He highlighted several issues faced by the mobile manufacturers and among the top of them was the quota restriction set by state bank for import of raw material.
“The mobile industry has been given a quota of LCs amounting to $83 mn per annum to import key components for mobile phone set assembly, but the fact raw material worth $185 mn is required to meet the demand of mobile sets for Pakistani market.” Mr Noor said.
He added that when the manufacturers were not able to meet the demand from the Pakistani buyers how can mobile phones be exported?
As per a mobile manufacturer/assembler the government was not even paying the three percent R&D allowance to mobile manufacturers that has been assured to them.
As per details currently there are 31 mobile phone licence holders in the country, including Samsung, Nokia, Xiaomi and other famous Chinese brands.
