Pran-RFL has made its debut in mobile phone production with its brand ‘Proton’. RFL Electronics, an RFL Group affiliate, will manage the business. The initiative was proposed and initiated to compete in the rapidly growing digital gadget market in the country. The organization has taken a noteworthy focus on the potential of the local mobile phone industry.
The first manufacturing factory/facility site of the company (an area of 30,000 square feet) is at Palash, Narsingdi. The group will begin its journey at the facility with more than 500 personnel after initially investing roughly 30 crore BDT. It has set a monthly production goal of 3.5 lakh feature phones and 1 lakh smartphones. Tablets, laptops, CCTV, phone accessories, and smart home equipment are all part of its product line. However, given that other businesses have already made significant investments in the industry and that local production is currently operational, they will face numerous competitors in the market. For instance, Symphony and Walton Group have been selling cellphones to Nepal and the United States, respectively. Some significant brands competing here include international companies like Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi.
In the 2017–18 fiscal year, the government provided significant tax incentives, which provided local phone production a boost it needed. Since then, 14 plants have been built, providing jobs for almost 17,000 people. Four other plants, including the Pran-RFL Group facility, are almost ready.
The market for mobile phones is thought to be worth between Tk 11,000 and Tk 12,000 billion annually. In 2020–2021, there was a 4.10 crore unit demand for mobile phones, and domestic manufacturers met 63% of that demand. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) reports that in the first half of this year, about 1.85 crore handsets—65 percent of which were featured phones—were produced locally.
Located in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Pran-RFL Group is a global consumer goods corporation. It is Bangladesh’s biggest producer of plastic goods and a food processor. It began its journey some 40 years ago and has always embraced chances to grow in new ways. It exports to 145 countries and has factories in 25 different areas of Bangladesh. In 2021–2022, it exported items worth $532 million. Pran-RFL, the biggest employer in Bangladesh, has directly produced nearly 1.5 lakh jobs.
