Govt invites global smartphone giants to set up manufacturing plants in Haripur

With the national economy barely up to the mark in recent months, the Pakistani government has decided to take concrete steps in the direction of economic stability. Among these steps is a plan to convince smartphone companies like Huawei to set up their phone manufacturing plants in the country in the hopes of boosting local employment opportunities and productivity.

In a statement during the Huawei Mobile Pakistan Summit on Monday, Minister for Information Technology Dr. Khalid Maqbool further expounded upon this plan: “The government has allocated land in Haripur, where mobile manufacturers would be allotted land for local manufacturing.”

The minister went on to state the government’s intention to digitalize Pakistan’s economy within the next few years, which would require an output of 0.2 million graduates in the information technology sector. He emphasized the importance of achieving this goal by explaining the role that mobile technology will play in critical areas like banking and education in the future.

He was aware and appreciative of the progress that Pakistan has made in the domain of IT and telecommunications, and he was also hopeful of continued progress as he viewed it as essential to transforming our nation in the Information Age.

Touching upon the boost in entrepreneurship in the country in recent years, Dr. Maqbool explained that startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the future and that developments, like increasing broadband penetration and setting up phone manufacturing plants, would certainly contribute to the development of these businesses.

Furthermore, he was grateful to Huawei for organizing this summit and he believed that it was a wonderful opportunity for experts and enthusiasts to interact with each other and promote developments in ICT.

Also present at the summit was Vice President Middle East Huawei Sun Xiaofeng, who talked about the advent of 5G and its importance in societies for the future. Economic and Commercial Counselor for Embassy of China Wang Zhihua added that Huawei and other Chinese companies were certainly willing to make heavy investments in Pakistan and that the two countries would hopefully be able to enhance cooperation in the high tech and business sector.