Govt committed to develop cell phone manufacturing industry in Pakistan: Dawood

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industries and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Tuesday said that the government was committed to develop and promote mobile devices manufacturing industry of Pakistan as part of electronic products manufacturing initiative, ARY News reported.

Chairing a meeting on Draft Mobile Device Manufacturing Policy prepared by Engineering Development Board (EDB), Ministry of Industries and Production, Razak Dawood said that the policy will attract new investment, generate employment and make Pakistan global player for electronics manufacturing.

According to a statement issued from the ministry, the adviser highlighted that draft policy envisages incentives for local Manufacturing, assembly of mobile devices, which will expectedly shift the focus from import of mobiles in completely built units to semi- knocked down and completely knocked down condition.

He further underlined that the proposed policy was mainly focusing on employment generation, import substitution and technology transfer.

Dawood maintained that the device collection through imports will be substituted by import of CKD kits at rationalized duty structure and enhancement of duty on CBU imports, thus making local assembly/manufacturing feasible vis a vis imports of mobile devices in CBU conditions.

He emphasized that the proposed policy will attract domestic and foreign direct investment in engineering sector. In this regard, the adviser urged the domestic and foreign companies to invest in manufacturing in electronic goods in Pakistan to get high return on their investment.

Special economic zones were providing technical and financial support through various incentives by granting tax holidays and duty exemptions on parts which are used in manufacturing of mobile phone devices and other electronic goods, he further added.