The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 2,477 new businesses in October 2024. This brought the overall number of businesses in the country that were registered to 233,587.
But this expansion shows that Pakistanis are becoming more confident about the country’s business sector.
This achievement would not have been possible without the SECP’s emphasis on digitization. An online method made the process faster and clearer, and it was used to register about 99% of the new businesses.
The SECP is making this change as part of a larger attempt to establish a tech-driven regulatory framework that facilitates ease of doing business and draws in investors from all over the world.
SECP’s October 2024 New Company Registrations
A total of 57% of the new registrations were private limited corporations. Nearly half (41%) of all businesses were sole proprietorships or partnerships with one person. The remaining 2% included public unlisted firms, nonprofits, trade groups, and limited liability partnerships (LLPs).
There were 556 new businesses registered in the IT and e-commerce areas, which saw the most growth.
After that, there were 486 new enterprises in the services industry and 388 in the trading sector. Energy, real estate, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and tourism were among the other industries seeing robust activity.
Additionally, 48 new businesses have received funding from investors in countries such as China, Afghanistan, France, and Germany, indicating an increase in foreign investment. The development of 39 new firms, with China as the major investor, increased SECP’s attractiveness to investors around the world.