Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) said it registered 21,668 new companies in the first six months of the current financial year, compared with 16,839 incorporations in the same period last year, taking the total number of registered companies to 279,724.
SECP said the newly incorporated companies brought paid-up capital of Rs30.7 billion during the period, reflecting a 29% increase from the previous year.
Incorporations were led by IT and e-commerce with 4,277 new companies, followed by trading with 2,997, services with 2,686, and real estate development and construction with 2,031, according to the regulator’s sector-wise data.
SECP said the top 10 sectors together accounted for a large share of new registrations during the half-year, with the distribution indicating continued activity across technology, services, and trading-linked segments.
On foreign participation, SECP said 524 newly incorporated companies received foreign investment of Rs1.26 billion during the period, with 731 foreign investors taking part.
China was the largest source of foreign inflows, accounting for 71% of the total, followed by Afghanistan at 8% and the United States at 2%, while the United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa, South Korea, Norway, Vietnam, Nigeria, and Bangladesh each contributed 1%. The remaining 11% came from other countries, SECP said.
