Haier Pakistan to Produce Laptops and Smartphones in Lahore

[RiazHaq]

Haq's Musings: Haier Pakistan to Expand Production From Home Appliances to Laptops, Smartphones

Haier-Ruba joint venture in Pakistan has announced plans to start manufacturing laptops and smartphones in Lahore this year, according to the JV chairman Shah Faisal Afridi. The Haier-Ruba group is one of the largest manufacturers of polyester yarn and home appliances in the country.




“We are not relying on importing mobile phones from China but our focus is the transfer of technology in the country so that we could manufacture our own product here. We have already started an assembly line for the laptops in Pakistan”, Afridi said in an interview with More magazine.

Haier Pakistan is currently producing refrigerators, deep freezers, washing machines, home air conditioners, commercial air conditioners, television sets, microwave ovens and other small appliances in a special economic zone (SEZ) on the outskirts of Lahore.

“Pakistan is one of eight countries around the world where the Chinese government plans to help its investors set up and operate SEZs, to use the country as a major base for manufacturing and exporting goods to the rest of the world. These zones have to be privately owned and operated,” said Afridi, who also heads the Haier-Ruba SEZ Company, according to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper.

Haier entered the Pakistan market in February 2001 by jointly establishing a facility with Pakistan-based Panapak Electronic Company to produce Haier air conditioners. The Group opened Haier (Pakistan) Industrial Park in Lahore in April 2001. In 2004, Haier was the first foreign brand home appliance manufacturer in Pakistan to obtain the ISO9001:2000 Certification, according to Andrew Delios, the author of "International Business: An Asia Pacific Perspective".

After 13 years in Pakistan, Haier has become the second most popular home appliance brand in the country. Haier Pakistan has maintained the highest market share for air-conditioners and washing machines for several years while Haier refrigerators curently enjoy the second highest market share. According to a Millward Brown survey in 2013, Haier has achieved 94% brand awareness, the second highest in the country.

Haier has 8 industrial complexes, two of which are foreign--one in the United States, and one in Pakistan, according to Xiaofei Li, the author of "China's Outward Foreign Investment: A Political Perspective". In these Special Economic Zones, Haier does localization to suit the needs of the consumers. For Pakistani market, Haier especially designed a washer that can hold 15 long gowns at one time. There are many more such Special Economic Zones envisaged as part of the CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor). It will be essentially an industrial corridor spanning almost the entire length of the country from the Arabia sea coast to the Karakorams where it enters China via the Karakoram Highway (KKH), the word's highest paved road.

Under the agreement signed by Chinese and Pakistani leaders at a Beijing summit recently, $15.5 billion worth of coal, wind, solar and hydro energy projects will come online by 2017 and add 10,400 megawatts of energy to the national grid. An additional 6,120 megawatts will be added to the national grid at a cost of $18.2 billion by 2021.




The transport and communication infrastructure—roads, railways, cable, and oil and gas pipelines—will stretch 2,700 kilometers from Gwadar on the Arabian Sea to the Khunjerab Pass at the China-Pakistan border in the Karakorams.

Starting in 2015, the Chinese companies will invest an average of over $7 billion a year until 2021, a figure exceeding the previous record of $5.5 billion foreign direct investment in 2007 in Pakistan.

Beyond the initial phase, there are plans to establish special economic zones in the Corridor where Chinese companies will locate factories. Extensive manufacturing collaboration between the two neighbors will include a wide range of products from cheap toys and textiles to consumer electronics and supersonic fighter planes.

The basic idea of an industrial corridor is to develop a sound industrial base, served by competitive infrastructure as a prerequisite for attracting investments into export oriented industries and manufacturing. Such industries have helped a succession of countries like Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, China and now even Vietnam rise from low-cost manufacturing base to more advanced, high-end exports. As a country's labour gets too expensive to be used to produce low-value products, some poorer country takes over and starts the climb to prosperity.

Once completed, the Pak-China industrial corridor with a sound industrial base and competitive infrastructure combined with low labor costs is expected to draw growing FDI from manufacturers in many other countries looking for a low-cost location to build products for exports to rich OECD nations.

The CPEC will not be just an economic or industrial corridor; it'll also be a strategic corridor for both China and Pakistan in countering the growing US-India alliance and Obama's Asia Pivot both of which as a threat to the regional stability of South Asia.

Clearly, China-Pakistan ties have now become much more strategic than the US-Pakistan ties, particularly since 2011 because, as American Journalist Mark Mazzetti of New York Times put it, the Obama administration's heavy handed policies "turned Pakistan against the United States". A similar view is offered by a former State Department official Vali Nasr in his book "The Dispensable Nation".

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Haq's Musings: Haier Pakistan to Expand Production From Home Appliances to Laptops, Smartphones

 

[rockstar08]

Good ... that will create Employment Opportunities

 

[Sulman Badshah]

they are already producing Laptop i guess

 

[sparten]

Lahore is fast becoming a Tech manufacturing hub.

 

[SafShikan]

allaa...will create an opportunity for Pakistan to advance in this age of technology...Qmobile should learn a lesson from them

 

[Muhammad Omar]

 

[RiazHaq]

Pakistan is bucking the trend in declining PC sales in MENA region:


PC sales in Africa and the Middle East (AME) will decline by 2% in 2014, with sales remaining flat to slightly negative for the next five years, according to new research by International Data Corp (IDC).

This is despite a positive third quarter in 2014, when the market expanded by 2,1% in volume terms year on year to reach 4,26m units. The grow was spurred in large part by two significant education orders in Pakistan and the revival of the Egyptian market.

Growth on the third quarter was seen across both the desktop and portable PC segments, IDC said. Desktop shipments to AME increased by 3,6% year on year to 1,73 million units, while shipments of portable PCs were up by 1,1% to 2,53m units.

“The market overcame ongoing instability in certain parts of the region to maintain its state of growth in the third quarter of 2014,” said Fouad Rafiq Charakla, research manager for personal computing, systems and infrastructure solutions at IDC Middle East, Turkey and Africa. “For example, the Nigerian market was hit hard by the outbreak of Ebola, while the war-like situation in Iraq greatly inhibited shipments to the ‘rest of the Middle East’ sub-region comprising Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Palestine and Afghanistan.”

PC makers also had to contend with a general slowdown in PC demand across the region due to the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones, said Charakla. “Indeed, an overall regional decline was only averted by the delivery of 150 000 notebooks into Pakistan’s education sector and the return of relative calm to Egypt, which saw these two countries become by far the fastest growing markets during the quarter.”

The three leading PC vendors in AME remained unchanged from the previous quarter. Hewlett-Packard continued to lead in market share, posting year-on-year unit growth of 14,4% for the quarter. Second-placed Lenovo continued to benefit from strong consumer demand and was again the fastest growing major PC vendor in the region, increasing its shipments by 58,2% year on year. Third-ranked Dell recorded 23% year-on-year growth, with one of the education deals in Pakistan serving as a major driver of sales.

Despite this, IDC expects the AME PC market to shrink by 2% overall in 2014. “The market will remain close to flat over the coming five years, and may even experience some minor declines, with demand for both desktops and portable PCs continuing to slow in many parts of the region. However, a number of underpenetrated markets — including Egypt, Pakistan, Nigeria and some smaller African countries — will continue to experience growth, preventing the overall region from experiencing any significant declines.” — © 2014 NewsCentral Media

Region’s PC market to slump by 2% | TechCentral

 

[Viper0011.]

Haq's Musings: Haier Pakistan to Expand Production From Home Appliances to Laptops, Smartphones

Haier-Ruba joint venture in Pakistan has announced plans to start manufacturing laptops and smartphones in Lahore this year, according to the JV chairman Shah Faisal Afridi. The Haier-Ruba group is one of the largest manufacturers of polyester yarn and home appliances in the country.

“We are not relying on importing mobile phones from China but our focus is the transfer of technology in the country so that we could manufacture our own product here. We have already started an assembly line for the laptops in Pakistan”, Afridi said in an interview with More magazine.

Like I keep saying, a bright future is ahead of Pakistan. The nation needs to work hard, be peaceful, 0 violence and be tolerant of others. Pakistan is about to make quantum leaps in terms of its market's size, growth and economy and its usual image in front of the world.

This news right here is about to introduce local mobile technology, consumer electronics, computing, hardware and software engineering built locally at a fraction of the actual cost you currently pay. This will advance your health, education, technology, defense, technology research and pretty much every other industry.

Say hello to a new, shinny advancing Pakistan, and a good bye to old school, intolerant and violent Pakistan because of its leaders not focusing on the right priorities before!!

 

[RiazHaq]

‘If ‘One Belt, One Road’ is like a symphony involving and benefiting every country, then construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is the sweet melody of the symphony’s first movement.’
—Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister


Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to unveil a $46 billion infrastructure spending plan in Pakistan that is a centerpiece of Beijing’s ambitions to open new trade and transport routes across Asia and challenge the U.S. as the dominant regional power.

The plan, known as the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, draws on a newly expansive Chinese foreign policy and pressing economic and security concerns at home for Mr. Xi, who is expected to arrive in Pakistan on Monday. Many details had yet to be announced publicly.

“This is going to be a game-changer for Pakistan,” said Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan’s planning minister, who said his country could link China with markets in Central Asia and South Asia.

“If we become the bridge between these three engines of growth, we will be able to carve out a large economic bloc of about 3 billion living in this part of the world…nearly half the planet.”

Beijing’s primary concern is that instability in neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan is spilling into China’s predominantly Muslim northwest, and could grow worse with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region.

China sees a historic opportunity to redraw the geopolitical map by succeeding where the U.S. has largely failed, building critical infrastructure that could kick-start economic growth and open new trade routes between China and Central and South Asia. A cornerstone of the project will be to develop the Pakistani port of Gwadar, a warm-water port run by the Chinese on the doorstep of the Middle East.

If realized, the plan would be China’s biggest splurge on economic development in another country to date. It aims over 15 years to create a 2,000-mile economic corridor between Gwadar and northwest China, with roads, rail links and pipelines crossing Pakistan.

The network ultimately will link to other countries as well, potentially creating a regional trading boom, Pakistani and Chinese officials say.

The Pakistan program has been described by Chinese officials as the “flagship project” of a broader policy, “One Belt, One Road,” which seeks to physically connect China to its markets in Asia, Europe and beyond.

“If ‘One Belt, One Road’ is like a symphony involving and benefiting every country, then construction of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor is the sweet melody of the symphony’s first movement,” Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister said during a visit to Pakistan in February.

Andrew Small, author of “The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics,” said China was reacting to the perceived failure of Western aid to make a significant difference to Pakistan. “The Chinese response is that you haven’t done it on a large enough scale,” Mr. Small said. “They’re saying that it is only by doing it on this kind of big-bang scale that you’re going to have the transformative economic effect that Pakistan needs.”

Gwadar, operated by a state-run Chinese firm, is set to begin commercial operations this year, and one of the deals to be signed by the Chinese president while in Pakistan is a final agreement on building a new international airport there, Pakistani officials said.

Mr. Small said propping up Pakistan economically furthers China’s regional competition with India. China sees Pakistan as a strategic counterweight to India. Conversely, the U.S. is backing India, which President Barack Obama visited in January, as a counterweight to China, despite Washington’s long relationship with Islamabad....


China Readies $46 Billion for Pakistan Trade Route - WSJ

 

[RiazHaq]

After encouraging response, #Haier #Mobile #Pakistan to grow aggressively with #smartphone manufacturing in Q1 2016 With encouraging response, Haier Pakistan to expand more aggressively - The Express Tribune …

It has been barely seven months since Haier Pakistan further diversified its portfolio and entered the saturated cellphone market, but the overwhelming response has forced the company to pursue its expansion plans more aggressively.

Haier is the first company that is establishing a mobile phone assembly plant near Lahore with an investment of $5 million. The plant, which is likely to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2016, will have the capacity to assemble 1.5 million cellphones annually.

“It takes years for a mobile company to diversify in such a competitive market, but we did it quite brilliantly. The coming year will be exciting for us as by March we will be launching the mobile assembly plant in Pakistan as per our commitment to bringing in technology and making our products more competitive,” said Zeshan Qureshi, Chief Executive Officer of Haier Mobiles, in an interview with The Express Tribune.

For Qureshi, the company’s product range has expanded to 27 in a short span, as it was only seven at the beginning. By March 2016, the company is hopeful that it will be able to further diversify the product range to around 35.

“The quality of our products is being appreciated in the market; this is due to our strong research and development wing that helped in selling over 0.5 million units in about seven months,” he added.

The price range is also flexible. Mobile sets are available at as low as $15 and go up to $300. The company has introduced three mobile categories for low, medium and high-end customers.

“We are about to launch a high-end product, V-6, which will be available at $450, the highest so far for our company,” Qureshi said.

He was of the view that any mobile brand should have a portfolio of 25 products in order to penetrate 100% in the market.

“At present, we have 80% penetration in Pakistan’s mobile market via our network of 18,000 distributors. There might be few areas remaining but we hope to reach those soon.”
The company has also introduced theft and accidental insurance for all its products through its 29 customer care centres.

Journey in Pakistan

Haier is operating in Pakistan’s market for 15 years and has established itself as a reliable name in household products. According to the company, every household has at least one appliance of Haier.

“The new era is of internet of things and every electronic appliance manufactured these days has these features. In order to connect these appliances with internet, we need a mobile or a tablet. And we have introduced mobiles to connect with the world,” he said.

Qureshi cited taxation and grey trafficking as areas that were affecting the brands. However, he said, it could be curbed if brands started investing in local markets as Haier was doing.

“We can only force the government to create an eco-system for mobile companies if they have strong presence and contribute reasonably to the economy, technology transfer and job creation.”