Page 74 - SAMENA Trends - January-February 2023

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Afghanistan and Kazakhstan to Cooperate in the Telecommunication Sector

The country’s Acting Telecommunications position of this country are important Ministry, Ali Ahmad Samand asked the
and Information Technology Minister, in for the countries of the region, mainly Ambassador of Kazakhstan to provided
a meeting with Kazakhstan ambassador Central Asia and South Asia, in terms of Afghan engineers trainings in the sector of
in Kabul, discussed the cooperation internet transit. A senior official of the telecommunications.
between the two countries in the sector of
telecommunications and capacity building.
Mawlavi Najibullah Haqqani, Acting
Telecommunications and Information
Technology Minister, emphasized on
expanding telecommunication services
in Afghanistan, increasing the capacity of
Afghan engineers and addressing internet
problems in the country in a meeting with
Kazakhstan ambassador Bakhtyar Sar
Sanbhi. Kazakh ambassador said, he will
inspire the reliable telecommunications
companies of his country to cooperate
with the telecommunications sector in
Afghanistan and transfer their experiences
to this country. He termed Afghanistan a
safe and suitable country for investment.
For his part, Haqqani said, that the current
situation of Afghanistan and the strategic

PTA Wants to Increase Manufacturing of Laptops, Tablets, Phones, and

Other Products

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to the mobile manufacturers. PTA says costs. PTA says that “the existing mobile
(PTA) has urged the Government to make that the current policy does not favor the manufacturing policy does not offer any
changes in the mobile phone manufacturing production of many other tech products competitive incentive for the export of
policy and include newer sectors. PTA such as laptops, tablets, signal boosters, locally manufactured mobile devices. This
suggests that making these changes will vehicle trackers, biometric machines, also needs to be reviewed, whereby export
allow the production of many other devices point-of-sales machines, dongles, RFID incentives should be enhanced which can
such as laptops and tablets thus increasing etc. Pakistan currently imports a lot of help export of locally manufactured mobile
job opportunities, increasing foreign these above-mentioned devices, once local devices to the Middle East, Central Asia and
exchange and reducing Pakistan’s import production is kicked off the country will African region.” According to the PTA, it’s
bill. The current mobile manufacturing take its first step towards self-fulfillment, high time for the Government of Pakistan
policy only favors the production of mobile increase exports, and even boost the to move towards localization and make the
phones and provides incentives limited local IT industry by lowering equipment necessary changes in Pakistan’s mobile
phone manufacturing policy. Alongside the
government, the Engineering Development
Board should also take the necessary
steps for ensuring localization. Local
technology manufacturing requires a firm
R&D, therefore PTA has requested the local
academia to focus on this sector. A strong
R&D will allow the tech manufacturers
to implement newer technologies and
increase exports. Apart from all of this,
PTA also urged the government to resolve
LC’s for mobile manufacturers since they
are unable to import raw materials for
production.
74 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2023