Pakistan Telecom and IT updates

[ghazi52]

Samsung Electronics to set up first TV line-up plant in Flag of Pakistan at Karachi in collaboration with R&R industries.
The unit will produce 50,000 TV sets and increase the capacity to 100,000 units within 2 years.

 

[ghazi52]

March 17, 1937

 

[ghazi52]

The Universal Service Fund (USF) Board has approved 10 projects worth approximately PKR 11.5 billion to provide high speed internet service, and optical fiber projects for top tourist destination areas Kumrat Valley, Swat including 19 un-served and under-served districts of Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces to facilitate approximately 4.4 million people.

Advised by the Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Syed Amin Ul Haque, the USF Board approved award of high-speed mobile broadband contracts to Jazz, Ufone and Telenor, while the optic fiber cable projects contract to PTCL. Federal Secretary Ministry of IT and Telecommunication & Chairman of USF Board, Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput chaired the 80th Board of Directors meeting of USF.

 

[ghazi52]

Pakistan's Air Link Communication Limited on Tuesday announced that it has entered into the distribution agreement with realme, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer.

Air Link, in its filing to the bourse, said that the agreement encompasses a complete range of realme mobile devices and accessories, IoT products, TVs in Pakistan with Exert Tech (Private Limited).

“Realme is one of the fastest-growing smartphone brands for five consecutive quarters, registered sales of 100 million smartphones across the world,” read the notification.

Last month, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) granted a manufacturing licence to Select Technologies Private Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air Link Communication that manufactures mobile devices of ‘selected brands’, for the manufacturing of Xiaomi mobile phones in Pakistan.

Air Link Communication Limited already has the licence to manufacture mobile phones of Transsion Holding’s major brands i.e. Tecno & iTel.

Xiaomi joined hands with Select Technologies (Pvt) Limited as its manufacturing partner for Xiaomi mobile phones in Pakistan, targeting initially production of around 2.5 million to 3 million handsets annually.

Air Link is one of the largest mobile phone distributors of Pakistan, which commenced local manufacturing of mobile phones in April with a monthly capacity of 400,000 units per month, which is expected to reach up to 550,000 units per month by FY23.

Pakistan's mobile manufacturing sector has been on an upward trend in recent months, owing to uptake on the PTA’s Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Authorisation regulatory regime.

The production of mobile phones by local manufacturing plants more than doubled against the import of commercial mobile phones in the country during Jan-November 2021 as the local production was recorded at 22.12 million compared to the imported mobile phones of 9.95 million.

However, despite the increase in local production of mobile phones, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $856.727 million during the first five months (July-November) of 2021 compared to $724.083 million during the same period of last year, registering a growth of 18.32%, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data.

 

[ghazi52]

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has drafted the “National Broadband Policy-2021”, targeting the contribution of digital/broadband development to the economy to the tune of $5 billion investment and $20 billion revenue by 2025.

The draft policy also envisages up to eight percent contribution toward the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from digital/broadband development in the next four years.

One of the objectives of the draft policy is to ensure that 100 percent population living in tier-2/3 cities should have access to high-speed internet, an average per user internet speed of 50Mbps in major cities, and facilitate 75 percent of the internet users with digital bank accounts by 2025

The draft policy aims at addressing some of the specific challenges;

The need for affordable access to broadband for all;

To address the challenges concerning the digital divide especially in unserved and underserved areas nationwide;

Overcoming the challenges in rolling out the required digital infrastructure and related financing models including extensive fiberization and efficient spectrum management;

Harmonization of existing tax regime on telecommunication services;

Stimulating the development of local and relevant content and services;

The need for improved and consistent broadband quality of service;


Urging the importance of digital trust over telecommunication networks to promote wider use of digital technologies in all spheres of life; Understanding the impact of the internet in terms of socio-cultural developments, economic growth, and environmental sustainability;


Lowering barriers for investments applied on existing licensees and for new investors in telecommunication sector and promoting public-private partnerships; and
Challenges vis-à-vis accelerated evolution towards adoption of Xth Generation technologies and fiberization, necessary for improving the state of broadband infrastructure.
© ProPakistani

 

[ejaz007]

Mini-budget and Telecoms
BR Research 06 Jan 2022

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Say a prayer for the goose that lays golden eggs! The fidgeting, budgeting, tax-chasing government has historically looked towards telecoms sector for easy taxes. But how many more eggs can this old poulet provide? While folks will get a rude shock in near future when they have to replace their smartphones or laptops, the country’s mobile network operators have already termed recent tax proposals as “aggressive”. They are warning about “unintended consequences” for affordability and adoption of digital services as well as as investor confidence. The situation may not be as dire, but it still demands unpacking the potential impact of tax measures that are in the offing.
As per the latest available information, the telecoms-related tax proposals in the so-called mini-budget may have two kinds of impact: one on digital usage and the other on adoption. In the “usage” sphere, there will be an increase in withholding tax (WHT) rate on prepaid airtime recharge, from existing 10 percent to all-time high of 15 percent. Recall that the government’s FY22 budget had recently reduced this WHT from 12.5 percent to 10 percent, with a commitment to further reduce it to 8 percent next fiscal.
Assuming mobile network operators achieve annual revenues of around Rs480 billion in FY22 (an assumption based on recent data and trends), a five percentage point increase in WHT may provide government with additional tax of Rs24 billion per annum at those revenue levels. The net collection on this count will be somewhat lower, as many among the 2 million+ income-tax-return filers are presumed to claim this deduction. However, net additional collection won’t be too much below Rs24 billion mark, for just over 2 percent of Pakistani adults file their returns.

As consumers are expected to either slightly cut back on their communication spending or keep it at same level, the additional money going into government coffers is set to impact operators more, with net-revenue-pie shrinkage of about $140 million per annum. No wonder, this move has peeved operators, who have protested that their respective headquarters’ business plans for further investment into Pakistan market were based on continuity of the telecoms-related tax regimes, especially concerning WHT. The impact on the “uptake” side will be felt more by ordinary people, as computing devices and smartphones are about to get expensive. There are two tax measures proposed in this regard. First, if the mini-budget is passed, local sales of computing devices (personal computers, laptops, notebooks, etc.) will carry a GST of 5 percent (previously the rate was 0%). This will come at a time when imported computers and laptops have already become expensive thanks to PKR depreciation.
As per data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), during FY21 Pakistan’s imports of “laptops, computers and notebooks” (HS Code: 8471.3010) had reached 0.92 million units (up 81% YoY), valuing Rs19.5 billion (up 76% YoY). Whereas imports of “personal computers” (HS Code: 8471.3020) in FY21 stood at 1.1 million units (up 25% YoY), with a worth of Rs19.4 billion (up 16% YoY). After accounting for post-import margins in the supply chain, a 5% GST on imported computing devices may yield just over Rs2 billion in new taxes p.a. This is not a big amount – certainly not worth the negative impact it will have on the youth’s ability to buy computers. And the second tax measure on the uptake side concerns the imposition of uniform GST of 17 percent on imported mobile phones whose value exceeds $200. Previously, imported mobile phones valuing $200-350 attracted a flat tax of Rs1,740; handsets valuing $350-500 were levied Rs5,400; and cellphones with prices above $500 carried Rs9,270 tax. This move may not impact users with low spending power. Local smartphone assemblers will have to up their game if they want to attract high-end smartphone users.

As per PBS data, Pakistan’s imports of cellular mobile phones (HS Code: 8517.1219) during FY21 were 21.8 million units (up 12% YoY), valuing Rs229 billion (up 10% YoY). Assuming that 20 percent of Pakistan’s annual mobile phone imports by value are made up of handsets priced $200 and above (and given that existing flat tax on mobile phones valuing $200 and above come in the range between 3 to 7 percent), the 17 percent GST imposition on high-end phones may yield incremental taxes somewhere between Rs4 billion to Rs7 billion (at FY21 volumes).
In all, telecoms-related measures cited above may yield the government between Rs30 billion to Rs33 billion in fresh taxes, equivalent to roughly a tenth of the Rs350 billion of additional tax receipts envisaged under the mini-budget. While it is not the end of the world for either the telecom users or mobile network operators, there is palpable disappointment that the government continues to view digital connectivity through fiscal lens and ignores, in the process, long-term goal of market development. The need is to incentivize digital uptake and usage, something which other countries have been doing during Covid-19.

Mini-budget and Telecoms

Say a prayer for the goose that lays golden eggs! The fidgeting, budgeting, tax-chasing government has historically...

www.brecorder.com

 

[ghazi52]

Senator Faisal Javed Khan on Sunday said that Pakistan hits its highest ever Information Technology (IT) Exports in 6 months.

In a tweet, he said that “our IT Exports during Fiscal Year 21-22 surged to $1.302 billion at the growth rate of 36% v/s $959 million during the same period of 2020-21”.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to cross $3.5 billion mark during this financial year”, he added.

Faisal Javed Khan who is also Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting said that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s focus is on increasing exports to stimulate economic growth. “We will inshaallah double our IT industry in 2 years”, he added.

He said that TechZones are being set-up to create employment, economic transformation & attract intl investors. “We are now the third-largest gig economy globally”, he added.

 

[ghazi52]

Pakistan’s freelancers generated $216.788 million in export earnings from July to December FY22, a 16.74 percent rise from $185.698 million in the same period last year.

According to data provided by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (IT&T), freelancers earned $163.881 million in export earnings from IT-related projects and $52.907 from non-IT gigs.

In comparison to the revenue of $185.698 million ( IT: $173.327 million + Non-IT: $12.371 million ) from July to December FY2021, freelancer earnings for the same period this year increased by 16.74 percent..

 

[ghazi52]

Pakistan seeks China’s help to manufacture semiconductors​

Chaudhry hopes China will join hands with Pakistan due to its cheaper labour, huge market.

APP
February 07, 2022

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BEIJING: .... In a bid to pursue self-sufficiency in the manufacturing of gadgets and for opening new developmental avenues, Pakistan has proposed an ambitious plan to build a semiconductor zone with China’s help.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain revealed this in an interview.

He said that during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to the neighbouring country, the two sides discussed the shifting of the semiconductors industry to Pakistan as it was beneficial for both.

“We want Chinese tech companies to come to Pakistan and make Pakistan a hub of semiconductors manufacturing," he added.

"We will also like to start semiconductor designing in Pakistan. I am very happy to tell you that Chinese investors are very keen to join hands with Pakistan and the technology zone will be converted into a semiconductor zone," the minister said.
He said that there was a huge area in science and technology where both countries could cooperate.

He pointed out that mobile phones were now being assembled in Pakistan, but they would like to take a step further and start full-fledged manufacturing of mobile phones in Pakistan.

He further said that bilateral cooperation had increased in the sector pertaining to health-related equipment. In the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Pakistan was importing everything related to this sector but now it is a major exporter of the same, he added.
“This is a landmark that we have achieved within a short period and now the health sector is open to collaboration. Pakistan has skilled labour, cheaper labour, and a huge market. We hope that Chinese tech companies will join hands with Pakistan to join our technology zone, and we will be able to come up with bigger cooperation in these sectors,” Chaudhry said.
He hoped that many Chinese tech companies would come to Pakistan after the premier’s visit because semiconductors are the core of every gadget, which would help bring value addition to the local manufacturing industry.
It is worth noting that during his visit, Prime Minister Imran held a series of meetings with leaders of China's leading technology companies, and both sides agreed to enhance cooperation in software development, information and communication technology, medical diagnostic, and other related sectors.

 

[ghazi52]

ISLAMABAD..: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) Group is willing to participate in 5G auction, however, it depends on licensing conditions and the auction value, said PTCL Group President and CEO Hatem Bamatraf.

Speaking at a news conference at the PTCL headquarters on Friday, he emphasised that the company would participate in the auction just like other telecom service providers.

He denied rumours that Ufone was in the process of acquiring a telecom company but added that options were always open for businesses.

Without naming any entity, he said “we are looking at the market and currently we are not in the process of conducting mergers or acquisitions but it does not mean that we will not consider an opportunity, if it is available.”

He was responding to questions regarding rumours circulating in market circles that one of the four telecom companies operating in Pakistan was planning to offload its assets and Ufone was vying to buy it to enhance its outreach.

The head of the telecom group did not express much eagerness to enter into the 5G auction process. He said that decision would be made based on market position and the conditions set by the government for the auction.

Bamatraf stressed that the company had planned to strengthen its presence as the only telecom firm that offered a complete range of solutions for digitisation, which included operating a microfinance bank.

 

[Pak Nationalist]

Pakistan's Air Link Communication Limited on Tuesday announced that it has entered into the distribution agreement with realme, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer.

Air Link, in its filing to the bourse, said that the agreement encompasses a complete range of realme mobile devices and accessories, IoT products, TVs in Pakistan with Exert Tech (Private Limited).

“Realme is one of the fastest-growing smartphone brands for five consecutive quarters, registered sales of 100 million smartphones across the world,” read the notification.

Last month, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) granted a manufacturing licence to Select Technologies Private Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air Link Communication that manufactures mobile devices of ‘selected brands’, for the manufacturing of Xiaomi mobile phones in Pakistan.

Air Link Communication Limited already has the licence to manufacture mobile phones of Transsion Holding’s major brands i.e. Tecno & iTel.

Xiaomi joined hands with Select Technologies (Pvt) Limited as its manufacturing partner for Xiaomi mobile phones in Pakistan, targeting initially production of around 2.5 million to 3 million handsets annually.

Air Link is one of the largest mobile phone distributors of Pakistan, which commenced local manufacturing of mobile phones in April with a monthly capacity of 400,000 units per month, which is expected to reach up to 550,000 units per month by FY23.

Pakistan's mobile manufacturing sector has been on an upward trend in recent months, owing to uptake on the PTA’s Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Authorisation regulatory regime.

The production of mobile phones by local manufacturing plants more than doubled against the import of commercial mobile phones in the country during Jan-November 2021 as the local production was recorded at 22.12 million compared to the imported mobile phones of 9.95 million.

However, despite the increase in local production of mobile phones, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $856.727 million during the first five months (July-November) of 2021 compared to $724.083 million during the same period of last year, registering a growth of 18.32%, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data.

The last paragraph deserves critical analysis. Why is this happening? Increased purchasing power of the upper-middle class, elites?

 

[Pak Nationalist]

Pakistan’s freelancers generated $216.788 million in export earnings from July to December FY22, a 16.74 percent rise from $185.698 million in the same period last year.

According to data provided by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (IT&T), freelancers earned $163.881 million in export earnings from IT-related projects and $52.907 from non-IT gigs.

In comparison to the revenue of $185.698 million ( IT: $173.327 million + Non-IT: $12.371 million ) from July to December FY2021, freelancer earnings for the same period this year increased by 16.74 percent..

If the earnings stop being counted under the head of remittances, one would find the freelancing services exports figure to be much higher than the reported one here.

 

[ghazi52]

Construction of the main building of Information Technology (IT) Park in Islamabad will start next month, officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology have confirmed.

According to details, all necessary arrangements have been completed, and the tendering process is in the final stage. Capital Development Authority (CDA) has already approved the design of the building, and MoITT has already obtained approval from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

All work related to electricity connections, drain channels, and procurement has been completed. Boundary wall construction and land payment have already been done. All work is completed from the Pakistani side, and on the Korean side, contract awarding is in process, which will be completed in the next couple of weeks.

IT Park Islamabad will consist of twelve storeys (2 underground and 10 above) and will stretch over an area of 66,893 square meters. It will provide office space to over 120 startups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and ancillary facilities like testing laboratories, classrooms, industry-academia linkage center, auditorium, etc

 

[ghazi52]

Mobile phones: Jul-Jan imports soar 11.86pc to $1.27bn YoY​

Tahir Amin
20 Feb, 2022

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.270 billion during the first seven months (July-January) of 2021-22 compared to $1.135 billion during the same period of last year, registering a growth of 11.86 percent, despite the increase in local manufacturing, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The overall telecom imports into the country during the period under review (July-January) 2021-22 increased by 19.53 percent by going up from $1.382 billion in July-January 2020-21 to $1.652 billion in July-January 2021-22.

On a month-on-month basis, imports of mobile phones into Pakistan decreased by 23.15 percent during January 2022 and remained $179.768 million when compared to $233.917 million imported in December 2021, the PBS data revealed.

On a year-on-year basis, mobile phones witnessed a decrease of 8.68 percent, when compared to $196.853 million in January 2021.

On a month-on-month basis, the overall telecom imports into the country decreased by 21.83 percent during January 2022 and remained $229.190 million, when compared to the imports of $293.193 million in December 2021.

On a year-on-year basis, overall telecom imports witnessed a 21.83 percent decline, when compared to $227.083 million in January 2021.

Other apparatus imports during July-January 2021-22 increased by 54.77 percent and remained $382.079 million compared to $244.868 million in July-January 2020-21.

Other apparatus imports registered 16.62 percent negative growth on a month-on-month basis and remained $49.422 million in January 2022 compared to $59.276 million in December 2021 and registered 63.49 percent growth when compared to $30.230 million in January 2021.

The manufactured/assembled mobile phones handsets by local manufacturing plants during the calendar year 2021 stood at 24.66 million compared to 13.05 million in 2020, i.e. 88 percent increase.

The commercial imports of mobile phones handsets stood at 10.26 million in 2021 compared to 24.51 million in 2020, revealed the official data of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

The number of local manufactured/assembled mobile handsets increased by 2.54 million in December 2021 and the total production reached 24.66 million in the calendar year. The production of mobile phones by local manufacturing plants has more than doubled against the import of commercial mobile phones in the country during 2021.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022

 

[ghazi52]

PM Imran bets on IT sector to generate employment, dollar inflow​

• Says govt aiming to take IT-related exports to $50bn in coming years, interested in involving Bill Gates in advisory position

BR
21 Feb, 2022

Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that Information Technology (IT) is the future for Pakistan, and the government is taking measures to enhance this sector, expressing confidence that investments would create employment opportunities for the youth and generate much-needed dollar inflows.

Khan, in his address at the E-Commerce Pakistan Convention in Islamabad, lauded the role of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on E-Commerce, Senator Aon Abbas, adding that the government will provide full support to the IT sector.

“The entire IT industry is youth-driven, even today young people are at top positions in the IT sector. This is because the global future is rapidly moving towards digitisation, and we should not miss this technology revolution,” he said.

I was interested in involving Gates with the Pakistan IT sector in an advisory position: Prime Minister Imran Khan

He said that the government is aiming to take IT exports to $50 billion in the coming years. “With minimal incentives, our IT exports have reached $3.75 billion, and with the coming incentives, we would facilitate our youth to reap benefit of this technology revolution,” Khan said.

He said that the IT exports of neighbouring India jumped from $1 billion to $100 billion in a span of 10 years. “If they can do it, we can as well,” he said.
“When we came into power, the situation was very bad and the country was on the brink of bankruptcy so I had to tell my cabinet to don't panic and today I tell the opposition not to panic,” said PM Khan.

The premier announced that the government has decided to charge zero tax on the incomes of registered freelancers.

On the recent visit of Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, Khan lauded the American magnate for his role against polio eradication in Pakistan. “I was interested in involving Gates with the Pakistan IT sector in an advisory position,” he said, adding that he would give "good news" regarding the development in the coming days.

"We are also changing the cricketing structure, and in the coming days Pakistan would become a cricket giant. We need to take similar measures across all sectors including education,” he said.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin in his address said that present government introduced a number of initiatives such as Raast and Roshan Digital Accounts (RDA), “as we want to move alongside the world”.

“The world is moving towards becoming a digital economy, and we need to be at par with the rest of the world,” he said.

The finance minister said that in the upcoming 5G spectrum auction, the government would focus on service quality, in order to improve internet and telecommunication service to boost the IT sector.

On the economy, Tarin said that there are three reasons behind the lack of sustainable growth in the country. “Firstly, our saving rate is very low i.e. 14-15%, which cannot sustain a growth of over 4-5%.

“Secondly, another major issue is that there is a huge gap of exports and imports, our exports account for 8.5% of the economy, whereas our imports are 18.5%. This gap is about $40 billion,” said Tarin.

He said that last year the IT sector grew by 47%, whereas this year we expect it to grow by 75%. “I want the IT sector to grow by 100% annually, and in the coming five years our IT exports should hit $50 billion, and this is not a difficult task,” said Tarin.
Earlier, Senator Faisal Javed Khan in a tweet post said Pakistan has witnessed exponential growth in the e-commerce sector, which will also help attract international payment gateways.