The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has registered a total of 8,286 new companies during 2016-17, reflecting a handsome growth of 34 percent when compared with previous fiscal. According to the companies' data compiled by the SECP for 2016-17, following registration of 8,286 new companies during 2016-17, total number of registered companies with the commission now stood at 80,700. Around, 86% companies were registered as private limited companies, 11% were registered as single-member companies and around three percent were registered as public unlisted, association's not-for- profit, trade organizations and foreign companies.
Breakup of data of 8,286 new companies during 2016-17 revealed that 1,303 companies were registered within the services sector; 1,100 companies in trading sector; 936 companies in construction industry; 773 companies in information technology; 518 companies in tourism sector; 254 companies in education sector and 252 companies were registered within food and beverages industry.
Data further revealed that the 225 companies were registered within the engineering sector; real estate development companies stood at 224; 211 companies in fuel and energy sector; 190 in corporate agricultural farming; 173 units in textile sector; 166 companies in pharmaceutical and transport; 158 companies in communication sector; 137 companies in auto and related industries; 123 in power generation; 121 in healthcare sector; 103 companies in broadcasting and telecasting; 101 in paper and board industry and 1,052 companies were registered in other sectors.
The SECP data further revealed that foreign investment has been seen in 562 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Srilanka, Sudan,
Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the UAE, the UK and the US. Moreover, 63 foreign companies from China, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UAE, the UK and the US have established places of business in Pakistan during the last fiscal year. These companies are engaged in the fields of auto and allied, cable and electric goods,
communication, construction, engineering, food and beverages, healthcare, services, power generation, trading, textile, transport, fuel and energy, information technology, insurance, steel and allied and other sectors.