During the current financial year 2021-22, 26, as many as 502 new companies were registered as compared to the previous year, where a growth rate of 4 percent has been observed, said a Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Annual Report released here Thursday. According to the Report, due to this growth, the total number of registered companies now reached to 172,234. In terms of efficiency, 99.4 percent companies were registered online during the current year and around 23 percent companies were registered within the same day. The outcome is the result of the strategic use of automation and process optimization to benefit end users and shorten the overall time required to launch a business in Pakistan, it said. Report said that out of the companies registered during the financial year 2021-22, approximately 64 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, 33 percent as single-member companies and the remaining were registered either as public unlisted, not-for-profit associations, trade organizations, foreign companies or limited liability partnerships. The sector wise breakdown of registered companies during the current year shows that the construction and real estate sector took the lead with incorporation of 4,791 companies.