“Manufactured in Pakistan”: Pakistan sends first ever shipment of 4G smartphones to UAE

Pakistan is officially a smartphone exporter after sending its maiden shipment of over 5,000 4G smartphones – tagged “Manufactured in Pakistan”, of course – to the United Arab Emirates.  

As reported by Dawn, the consignment of 5,500 smartphones was manufactured by Inovi Telecom and shipped off to the UAE this past Friday. Incorporated back in 1995, Inovi is currently the official partner of both Sony and Huawei in Pakistan. 

Despite this incredible milestone, it has been stressed by local smartphone manufacturers that there is a need for an export supportive policy, so that the country can continue to progress in this regard and beat Middle Eastern competitors. 

The Pakistan Telecommunication Auth­ority (PTA) on Saturday congratulated the company for the achievement and hoped the exports of smart phones would increase further.  

“This is the result of concerted efforts for the development of mobile device manufacturing ecosystem in the country,” said the telecom regulator in a statement. 

Under the mobile manufacturing policy, PTA had issued Inovi Telecom with the authorization back in April 2021 to manufacture mobiles in Pakistan. Within four months, the company managed to complete its first export order of 5,500 4G smartphones. 

Chief Executive of Inovi Zeeshan Mian Noor said that their main target was to penetrate in low-end markets of Middle East including Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. 

“We are manufacturing the Chinese brands and there are a large number of expat workers in the Gulf countries,” he said, adding that the high-end consumers of Gulf countries prefer top world class mobile brands and we should not even try to get involved in that market.