ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has launched a single online procedure under which a company can now be registered within four hours in one go.

In ‘Doing Business Report 2018’ of the World Bank, the time-period for starting a business in Pakistan required 17.5 days.

The SECP and Board of Investment (BoI) worked in close collaboration to introduce reforms in making business incorporation earlier in the context of ‘Starting a Business’ indicator of the ‘Doing Business’ report.

Considering the world’s best practices for company registration, the single online procedure has been a sought-after reform area.

The SECP has combined the procedures for company’s name reservation and its incorporation.

This has helped the new start-ups to register companies in a single step through e-services.

The BoI said the total time to register a company is now four hours, whereas the requirements are: submission of name availability with three options, incorporation of application with model memorandum of association and articles of association.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2018