Iran domestic mobile phone industry to reach 2-mln output by 2022: Minister
Iran’s telecoms minister says four Iranian companies will produce two million mobile phones a year within the next two years to fill a gap created in the market as a result of the American sanctions.
Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said on Tuesday that the first Iranian-made smartphone fully designed and produced by a major Iranian company will hit the markets in late February or in early March.
He said the government and state-run companies will support the production and supply of the Iranian smartphones as the country seeks to offset the impacts of the American sanctions on its digital economy.
“We should always view the problems as an opportunity, an opportunity that could make us progress,” said Jahromi while signing a trilateral agreement with Iran’s ministry of industries (MIMT) and the Post Bank of Iran, to back the production of Iranian-made mobile phones, on Tuesday.
He said the market for Iranian mobile phones could reach a total value of nearly $400 million in the next two years, adding that the average price for a unit of smartphone produce inside Iran will be around $200.
He said the Post Bank will offer an initial fund of more than $15 million to allow the companies to sell their phones through leasing schemes.
Jahromi said the MIMT had also agreed to reduce the tariff on imports of certain mobile phone parts by 15 percent to help slash the final price of the Iranian-made phones.
Major international smartphone companies have seen their share of sales in the Iranian market significantly reduced since early last year when the US sanction on Iran caused Iran’s national currency to devaluate.
Jahromi admitted lower supply of foreign smartphones into the Iranian market had caused many to opt for simple phones.
However, he insisted that the domestic production of the mobile phones would mean a failure for the American sanctions as the scheme would create more jobs and would help the government go ahead with its plans for creating a fresh boom in the digital sector.
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