Vivo to manufacture smartphones in Pakistan by March next year

Chinese smartphone maker Vivo is setting up its manufacturing facility in Pakistan which is expected to start production by March next year.

Q-Mobile, G-Five, Infinix and Tecno among other companies are already manufacturing mobile phones in Pakistan.

Minister for Production and Industries Hammad Azhar said in a tweet on Wednesday that Vivo has already purchased the land for its upcoming smartphone manufacturing plant in the country.

Azhar said the deployment of Device Identification Registration and Blocking System curbed smuggling of phones, which was followed up by the Mobile Manufacturing Policy.

He claimed that revenues have already doubled for the mobile phone makers and now local manufacturing is taking off.

Engineering Development Board General Manager Asim Ayaz, who also attended the meeting with the Vivo delegation and the minister, said that it would be too early to say when the company will start production but tentatively, production can be expected by February or March next year.

Ayaz said that Samsung and Oppo have also been evaluating the Pakistani market for viability to set up manufacturing plants in the country. 

Muhammad Rizwan, the Karachi Electronics Dealers Association president who also has stakes in the retail business of mobile phones, says that companies will get incentives from the government if they start manufacturing in the country.

“There’s a huge demand for mobile phones in the country,” he said. “The companies manufacturing mobile phones in the country will get an edge over others as they will get incentives on duties and taxes.”

Rizwan, who has an office in Pakistan’s biggest mobile phone market in Karachi, says there’s demand for mobile phones from Afghanistan as well as Iran.

The companies setting up manufacturing plants would also have the opportunity to export phones, he added.