ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan registered 2,864 new companies in July, according to the data released by SECP on Monday.

This signalled an increase of 25 per cent from the corresponding month last year and marked the highest number of companies ever registered in a month. The total number of registered companies now stands at 225,561.

About 58 per cent were registered as private limited companies in July, 39pc as single-member and the remaining 39pc as public unlisted companies, not-for-profit associations, trade organisations, and limited liability partnerships. Almost cent per cent enrolments were done online.

The information technology sector took the lead with 471 incorporations, trading 364, services 362, real estate development and construction 284, tourism 164, food and beverages 139, e-commerce 120, education 111, textile 65, marketing and advertisement 64, corporate agricultural farming 63, chemical 53, healthcare, and power generation 51 each.

Furthermore, cosmetics and toiletries, mining and quarrying with 47 each, fuel and energy 46, engineering 43, pharmaceutical 40, transport 32, auto and allied 27, communications 23, cables and electric goods 22, arts and culture 18, paper and board, and sports-allied 17 each, logging 16, and 107 were registered in other sectors.

Foreign investment has been reported in 86 new companies mainly by foreign investors from Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Sir Lanka, Turkey, UK, US and Zambia.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2024