Pakistan records double-digit growth in new firms in Feb

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has seen a double-digit growth in the number of new firms during the last month with the government’s reforms encouraging entrepreneurship in the country, the financial regulatory agency said on Tuesday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) said the corporate registrar incorporated 2,257 new companies and startups in February, up around 40 percent year-on-year. Almost all of them were incorporated online, 30 percent were issued registration certificates the same day, and 175 new foreign businesses were also registered from overseas.

The total number of registered firms rose to 137,054, according to the SECP.

“This sizeable growth is a result of the SECP’s various measures, including introduction of simplified combined process for name reservation and incorporation, reduction of fee, facility of online payment, issuance of digital certificate of registration and assistance provided for incorporation by the newly established business centre,” the SECP said in a statement.

Pakistan improved its position in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index 2020 for the second consecutive year. The country improved its position by 28 points from 136 to 108. Out of six reform areas acknowledged in the report, the highest improvement of 58 points has been made in the ‘starting a business’ indicator where the country ranked 72 compared to the previous 130.

It was placed at the second position among the South Asian countries in terms of ease of starting a business.

Of the newly registered firms in February, 68 percent were registered as private limited, 30 percent as single member and two percent as public unlisted, not for profit associations, foreign companies and limited liability partnership.

In February, foreign investment was reported in 52 new companies from Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, Korea South, Kuwait, Lebanon, Norway, Oman, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Syria, Tanzania, Turkey, UAE, UK, Ukraine and the United States.

Trading sector took the lead with the incorporation of 354 firms, followed by information technology (272), construction (220), services (216), real estate development (163), corporate agricultural farming (99), ecommerce (92), food and beverages (81), education (65), textile (60), healthcare (56), engineering (47), market and development, and pharmaceutical (43 each), chemical (39), tourism (36), transport (35), auto and allied (32), cosmetics and toiletries, and mining and quarrying with (29 each), cables and electric goods (27), fuel and energy (23), broadcasting and telecasting (22), communications (20), logging (19), paper and board (16), steel and allied (14), power generation (13), wood and wood products (11), and 81 companies were registered in other sectors.

The highest numbers of companies (765) were registered in Islamabad, followed by 634 and 361 in Lahore and Karachi, respectively. The company registration offices in Multan, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta and Sukkur registered 161, 153, 79, 63, 32 and nine new businesses, respectively.