The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has witnessed over 100 percent growth in incorporation of new companies for the second consecutive month in May. According to the SECP, 1,597 new companies were registered in May 2021, witnessing a growth of 107 percent as compared to corresponding period of the last year. The SECP in April registered a total 2,185 new companies, showing extraordinary growth of 186 percent in incorporation of new companies as compared to corresponding period of the last year i.e. April 2020. The SECP said that the total number of registered companies has increased to 143,416. The SECP said that trend of growth is attributed to automation, introduction of simplified combined processes for name reservation and incorporation, and facilitation extended by the SECP’s newly established Business Centre. It said that in May, around 99 percent of companies were registered online, adding 36 percent of applicants completed the incorporation process the same day while 175 foreign users were also registered from overseas. During the month of May, 68 percent companies were private limited, 28 percent were single member and remaining 4 percent comprise public unlisted companies, not for profit associations, trade organisations and limited liability partnerships (LLP). It detailed that the construction & real estate sector took the lead with incorporation of 252 companies, while companies in other sectors include: trading 247, IT 216, services 149, e-commerce 64, food & beverages 59, education 51, corporate agricultural farming 50, market & development 39, textile 37, tourism 34, chemical 33, healthcare 31, engineering 29, auto & allied 27, logging 25, pharmaceutical 24, mining & quarrying 21, broadcasting & telecasting, and fuel and energy, 19 each, cables & electric goods, paper & board, and transport, 16 each, cosmetics & toiletries 14, power generation 12, communication 11 and remaining 67 companies were registered in other sectors. The SECP said that foreign investment has been reported in 48 new companies from Azerbaijan, China, Denmark, Germany, Korea South, Kuwait, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, UAE, the UK and the US. The highest numbers of companies, i.e. 519 were registered in Islamabad, followed by 513 and 250 companies registered in Lahore and Karachi respectively. The CROs in Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Quetta and Sukkur registered 116, 88, 62, 36, 11 and 02 companies respectively.