Samsung, Huawei and Nokia will Manufacture Phones in Pakistan

The government has come up with a new mobile phone manufacturing policy, according to a local newspaper. Well-informed sources in EDB revealed that M/s Samsung, M/s Huawei and M/s Nokia are willing to start phone manufacturing in Pakistan as the labor wages here are lower in comparison to China.

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In China the unskilled labor is paid around CNY 5,000 which is PKR 105,000 and technical workforce is paid CNY 20,000 which in Pakistani Rupees is 420,000. However in Pakistan unskilled and technical labor is available at very low wages.

Further stating the mobile manufacturing plants costs around PKR 2 billion. In a meeting of Pakistan Mobile Manufacturers this was revealed. The meeting was also attended by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and EDB representatives. It was held on 31st Jaunary,2019.

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

He suggested that a collaborative effort is required between Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P) and relevant stakeholders to formulate a policy that encourage local production of mobile phones.

Mansoor Khan said that as of now 23 companies assemble mobile phones in Pakistan out of which 15 are in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. This is due to tax holiday offered by AJK industry. Thus he said tax chunks should be there as per the industry’s manufacturing and classification.