ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 8,286 companies during the fiscal year 2016/17, depicting a 34 percent increase in incorporations in year 2015/16, the commission reported on Thursday.
The current number of companies registered with the SECP stands at 81,493. Despite lower economic activity in June 2017 due to Ramazan and Eid holidays, the SECP registered 595 new companies.
Of these, around 86 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, around 12 percent were single member companies and two percent were registered as public unlisted, trade organisations and foreign companies, it added.
The service sector took the lead with the incorporation of 96 new companies; followed by trading sector with 86, construction 84, information technology 57, tourism 35, education 24, food and beverages 19, corporate agricultural farming 16, real estate development and textiles 14 each, auto and allied 13, engineering and fuel and energy 12 each, pharmaceutical, healthcare and transport 10 each, and 83 companies were registered in other sectors.
Moreover, two foreign companies were registered at the company registration offices in Karachi and Islamabad. The growing trend in company registration is the direct result of numerous reforms and facilitation measures undertaken by the SECP.