Samsung starts producing mobile phones in Pakistan: Report

One of the world's largest manufacturers of mobile phones, Samsung, has finally started production in Pakistan, lifting hopes of the authorities and the industry that this would cut down the import bill of the country in the months to come, according to a media report on Wednesday.

''We were informed that Samsung has formally started its production,'' Chairman of the Senate's Standing Committee on Industries and Production Faisal Subzwari told Dawn newspaper.

Subzwari headed a delegation of members of the Senate panel which visited Samsung's production unit on Tuesday where the company's top managers briefed them on the issue.

''It's really good to know that the company has started production within a short span of four months,'' he said. ' I believe that we need to move forward from just growing in the assembling area to localization of the industry.'' The country has witnessed robust growth in the local production of cellular phones. However, despite the increase in the local production of mobile phones, the import remained on a higher side. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) data says that mobile phones worth $644.673m were imported during the first four months (July-October) of 2021 compared to $557.961m during the same period of last year, registering a growth of 15.54 percent.

The industry believes that it may take time to achieve the desired results but with the fresh start in a new industrial avenue, things have finally started moving in the right direction, the paper said.

''With the production of around 250,000 to 300,000, we aim to produce around 3m cell phones every year,'' Mohammad Ali Tabba, chief of the Lucky Group which partners with Samsung to produce cell phones in Pakistan, said.