ANKARA: The number of mobile phones annually produced in Turkey rose to 1.071 million in 2014, a record increase of more than threefold over the previous year’s production.
According to a recent statement issued by Transportation, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Lütfi Elvan, the number of imported cellular phones decreased year-on-year; however, domestic production increased twofold. While the total volume of cellphone imports decreased from 14.779 million in 2013 to 14.695 million in 2014, the number of mobile phones brought into Turkey fell from 1.088 million to 612,913 during the same period.
On the other hand, domestic phone production surged from 347,649 to 1.071 million from 2013 to 2014.
Commenting on the figures, Elvan said it was a significant and pleasing development to see domestic production increasing. However, he added that the figure for local production volume does not seem to be enough when it is compared to the number of cellphone imports.
Maintaining that Turkish companies should focus on meeting domestic demand first, Elvan said they need to develop more complex devices that can compete with the production of leading phone producers in the world and they need to concentrate on exporting these devices.
