Mobile phone manufacturing is one of the biggest industries worldwide. This industry is now moving out of China and into countries such as India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Industries and Production and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood has recently revealed that the government will provide incentives to the cell phone manufacturers in Pakistan. It is expected that Pakistan’s mobile set manufacturing policy will be ready within a few months.
The policy is being drafted in such a way that the maximum contribution is towards driving exports of the country. It is expected that the cell phone industry can contribute $500 million to $1 billion in exports of engineering goods.
Currently there are more than 10 domestic assemblers of mobile phones. Most of them are producing 2G feature phones & waiting for Government policy to upgrade themselves to manufacturing of 4G smart phones. A Pak-China joint venture to locally assemble smart phones has already been set up in Karachi with an initial investment of Rs 160 million.
Mobile phone assembly is a labor intensive activity which can create over 120,000 jobs within a period of three years. Most of these jobs will be for skilled workers & young electronics engineers graduating from local universities.
