Telecom company Nokia announced it will locally assemble the products in Bangladesh.
The government’s policy to promote local production rather than importing devices facilitated the decision. The announcement was made on Thursday.
These brands produce 85 percent of the smartphones in the local market and meet 55 percent of local demand for both smart phones and feature phones.
Officials of HMD Global and Union Group made the announcement at Sheraton Dhaka on introducing two smart phones – G10 and G 20 – as made in Bangladesh device from Nokia.
The company established plant at Bangabandhu Hi-tech City in Gazipur in association with United Kingdom-based Vibrant Software and Union Group of Bangladesh.
The locally produced Nokia smartphones will be 30 percent cheaper compared than the imported handsets, according to the officials.
HMD Global general manager Ravi Kunwar said the company didn’t have any debut in one and half year which was challenging period for the global brand.
Officials claimed the devices—G10 and G20 have “three-day” battery life on a single charge which is longest yet for a Nokia phone.
However, the price of G10 with 3 gigabyte random access memory is Tk 13,499 and G20 with 4 GB Ram is Tk 14,999.
Officials claimed the price of the smart phones is comparatively higher considering the global brand value of Nokia. Regarding the Gazipur factory, the officials claimed that multiple quality control systems, both automated and human operated, to ensure the highest quality of finished products.
Union Group director Alvee Rana said the company established the factory following the European standards set by HMD Global to gain more share in Bangladesh market providing affordable devices.
Initially, the factory will process 300 units of smartphone every day through six production lines of which 4 are for assembling and 2 for packaging.
The plant is facilitated with all required infrastructure, including its own testing laboratory and employments of around 200 workers.
Total number of handsets manufactured and imported in the country in the fiscal year 2019-20 was 29.48 million units, according to Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
Of which, around 16.21 million units were manufactured locally by 10 companies, while 13.27 million units were imported.
