A distant dream?

This refers to the letter ‘Made in Pakistan’ (March 11) by Atif Rana. One hopes that the dream of the local manufacturing of mobile phones is turned into a reality. However, as of now, there are no plans to set up a complete manufacturing facility in the country. The authorities are looking forward to set up an assembling plant to merely assemble mobile phones. Since a majority of the parts will be imported, it is unlikely that these phones will be available at low prices. This case is similar to the automobile industry which has not reached the stage of complete manufacturing even though assembling plants were set up in the country some six decades back. There has been no effort on the part of the authorities to convert the existing assembling plants into full-fledged manufacturing units. As a result, the cost of vehicles assembled in Pakistan by different assembling plants operating with low investment levels is high as compared with the cost of imported vehicles despite the plethora of concessions and incentives granted by the government.

There is no concept of self-reliance as our rulers are obsessed with foreign brands. As a result, Pakistan has a nascent industrial base with mostly assembling or packaging units that don’t add any value to the final product. It is a core reason for the country’s backwardness, low export base, excessive reliance on imports and the perennial trade and current account deficits.

Kulsoom Arif

Karachi