Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 2,349 new companies in February 2022, raising the total number of registered companies to 163,333. The accumulated capitalization (paid-up-capital) of newly incorporated companies is Rs2.2 billion.

During February, foreign investment has been reported in 50 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Bahrain, Burma (Myanmar), China, Cyprus, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea South, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Niger, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the UK the US and Yemen.

To facilitate investors, the SECP has also set up a designated help desk to facilitate investors from China. The Chinese Help Desk, staffed with team proficient in Mandarin, aims to provide requisite support to Chinese investors for registration of their businesses in Pakistan. Besides, Company Incorporation Guide in Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, Urdu and Spanish languages are also available at SECP’s website.

In February, about 62 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, while 35 percent were registered as single member companies while remaining 03 percent were registered as public unlisted companies, not for profit associations, trade organizations, foreign companies and limited liability partnership (LLP). About 99.5 percent companies were registered online and 236 foreign users were registered from overseas.

The real estate development & construction sector took the lead with incorporation of 453, information technology with 334, trading with 287, services with 221, education with 106, commerce with 91, marketing and advertisement with 77, food and beverages, and textile with 73, tourism with 65, corporate agricultural farming with 54, healthcare with 49, engineering with 47, transport with 38,  pharmaceutical with 34, power generation with 31,lodging with 28, chemical with 27, communications with 26, paper and board with 25, mining and quarrying with 24, cosmetics and toiletries with 20, cables and electric goods with 18, auto and allied with 17, fuel and energy with 16, broadcasting and telecasting with 13,  steel and allied with 12  and 90 companies were registered in other sectors.