South Korean tech giant Samsung has been in discussions with three investors to open manufacturing units in Pakistan.
According to the sources, one of the three investors has a franchise in Korea and he has already set up his vehicle assembling plants under the Auto Development Policy 2016-21. The other two are different parties.
No final agreement has been signed yet because, after the shortlisting of different companies, only one company will be selected to award the license for cell phone manufacturing.
World’s largest cell phone making company has said that they are expecting a profit of around 12.5 trillion won from April to June, which was 8.15 trillion last year.
According to a source, the Korean company aims at starting a local assembly of cell phones in the last quarter of this year.
In 2020, the Engineering Development Board (EDB), which is a part of the Ministry of Industries and Production, approved Mobile Device Manufacturing Policy (MDMP). Up till now, 21 companies have been given a positive sign for the authorisation of mobile device manufacturing. The government has framed MDMP to discourage imports and encourage foreigners to make products under the tag of “Make in Pakistan”.
Locations for factories include Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Islamabad according to the EDB list. Some brands’ names include Nokia, Oppo, Infinix, Tecno, Itel, Vivo, Alpha, Realme, VGOTEL, DCODE, Calme, Xcell, Spice, TCL, Alcatel, etc.
According to the Economic Survey 2020-21, from July 2012 to February 2021, the telecom sector has attracted over $3.9 billion of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). From July to December FY21, telecom operators have invested an amount of $363.9m. Behind this investment, a major role is played by the cellular sector which contributed an amount of $253.5m during the period. Pakistan’s cell phone customers have reached 183 by May 2021.