The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered 1,070 new companies in September, witnessing a growth of 50 percent as compared to the corresponding period last year. In a statement issued by the SECP, the commission said that the rise in number of registered companies, which is 90,722 in total now, was due to various reforms undertaken by the commission. This includes introduction of simplified combined process for name reservation and incorporation, reduction of fee and assistance of incorporation by facilitation wings of Company Registration Offices (CRO). Around 73 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, while around 25 percent were registered as single-member companies. Whereas, the remaining companies were registered as public unlisted, non-profit associations, foreign companies and limited liability partnership. The trading sector spearheaded with the incorporation of 189 companies, construction with 142, services with 137, I.T. with 107, tourism with 83, food and beverages with 45, real estate development with 34, corporate agricultural farming with 29, textile with 28, engineering with 26, education with 20, transport with 18, marketing and advertisement with 16, healthcare, and pharmaceutical with 14 each, cables and electric goods with 13, auto allied, and paper products with 12 each, logging, and mining and quarrying with 11 each and 109 companies were registered in other sectors. Moreover, one foreign company was also registered by CRO Islamabad. The SECP’s has introduced reforms to increase corporatization and register companies within four hours. Foreign investment has been reported in 34 new companies, which have foreign investors from, Australia, Belarus, China, Denmark, Germany, Iran, Korea South, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Russia, Thailand and the UK. The highest numbers of companies, which is 374, were registered in Islamabad, followed by 296 and 195 companies registered in Lahore and Karachi respectively. The CROs registered in Peshawar are 83, 43 in Multan, Faisalabad 28, Gilgit-Baltistan 27, Quetta 20, and four in Sukkur.