Walton starts making phone handsets

Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd on Thursday started manufacturing mobile handsets at its Smartphone Manufacturing Unit for the first time in the country.

The local tech giant will manufacture around 2.5 million to 3.0 million mobile handsets-both smart and feature phones in the 50,000-square-feet facility.

State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tarana Halim inaugurated the manufacturing process at Walton's factory at Chandra in Gazipur district.

The inaugural ceremony was also attended by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) chairman Dr Shahjahan Mahmood, Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd chairman S.M. Shamsul Alam, Walton Digi-Tech Industries Ltd chairman SM Rezaul Alam and Managing director SM Manjurul Alam, and Walton Group chief executive officer SM Zahid Hasan.

After visiting the smartphone manufacturing facility, the state minister said, "It will remain a historical day for Bangladesh because a local company has started manufacturing smartphones for the first time, which has taken the country to the next step of digitisation."

She expressed the hope that Walton will manufacture quality smartphones at its factory following BTRC regulations to fulfill the Prime Minister's dream of Digital Bangladesh by 2021.

Fourth generation of broadband cellular network technology (4G in short) is on the offing, said Tarana Halim, adding that Walton will prepare itself to compete in smartphone category with foreign brands by manufacturing quality products.

Focusing on employment generation by Walton, she said brain drain is a problem for the country, which can be mitigated through increased job opportunities created by local technology companies like Walton.

She urged the authorities to provide low-cost smartphones to the people with installment facility.

To facilitate local tech investors, the government has lowered tax rate for mobile handset manufacturing with raising taxes on imported smartphones of foreign brands, she added.

In response to a question, the state minister said the government had been carrying out drives against illegal and smuggled handsets.

The BTRC has also working on a plan to develop a system for which illegal handsets will not able to be activated in the country, she added.

Walton authority informed that the smartphone manufacturing unit features departments including handset design, research and development, quality control and testing lab consists of local and foreign experts.

The unit will generate around a thousand job once it becomes fully operational.

[email protected]