SECP records 70 percent surge in registration as entrepreneurship grows

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has seen a sharp increase in interest of entrepreneurs to register their businesses with the authorities as entrepreneurship grows with declining job opportunities in the private sector, the official data showed on Monday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 2,365 new companies in September, indicating an increase of 69 percent over the same month a year earlier.

Of newly registered, 68 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, 29 percent as single member companies and three percent as public unlisted companies and not for profit associations.

Almost all the registration was done online in September, while 40 percent of the companies were registered within a day. Pakistan envisaged GDP growth rate of 1 percent for the current fiscal year as against the contraction of 0.4 percent in the last fiscal year.

The economy has started exhibiting early signs of recovery with key indicators suggesting a potential turnaround in the levels of activity. Nonetheless, the economy is still below the pre-COVID levels as suggested by the recent falling trend in large scale manufacturing.

The trading sector took the lead with incorporation of 414 companies, followed by construction with 294 companies. A total 289 companies were registered in IT sector, 226 in services, 139 in the real estate, 87 companies in food and beverages, 73 in corporate agricultural farming, 70 in ecommerce and 69 companies registered in tourism sector, according to the SECP.

Sixty three companies were registered in education sector, 61 in engineering, 59 in pharmaceutical, 46 in textile, 42 in transport, 38 in marketing and advertisement, 37 in chemical, 28 in logging, 35 in mining and quarrying, 33 in healthcare, 26 companies in each power generation, cables and electric goods, 24 each in fuel and energy, 21 in communications, 19 each in auto and allied and paper/ board, 17 each in broadcasting and telecasting, and cosmetics and toiletries, 14 in steel and allied and 73 companies were registered in other sectors.

In September, foreign investment has been reported in 43 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from, Australia, China, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy, Japan, the

Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the UAE, the UK, the US and Yemen.

The highest numbers of companies – 812 – were registered in Islamabad, followed by 764 and 348 companies in Lahore and Karachi, respectively. The authorities in Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta and Sukkur registered 183, 97, 64, 62, 33 and 2 companies, respectively.