ISLAMABAD - The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) registered 2,374 new companies in December 2022. The total number of registered companies now stands at 183,744. Total capitalization (paid-up-capital) of these companies for the current month stands at Rs4.1 billion. Foreign investment has been reported in 85 new companies. These companies have foreign investors from Afghanistan, Austria, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, USA and Vietnam. Major chunk of investment was received from China with 48 companies, Germany with 5, Afghanistan, UK and US with 4 each, Iran and South Africa with 2 each and 16 companies with other countries. In the final month of calendar year 2022, nearly 56 percent companies were registered as private limited companies, while 41 percent were registered as single member companies. The remaining three percent were registered as public unlisted companies, not for profit associations, foreign companies and limited liability partnership (LLP). Nearly 99.8 percent companies were registered online. The real estate development & construction sector took the lead with incorporation of 427, information technology with 329, trading with 292, services with 218, education with 107, tourism with 104, food & beverages with 89, ecommerce with 82, corporate agricultural farming with 63, textile and mining & quarrying with 55 each, pharmaceutical with 51, marketing & advertisement with 50, and 452 companies were registered in other sectors. As a result of integration of SECP with FBR and various provincial departments, 2,172 companies were registered with FBR for generation of NTN, 60 companies with EOBI, 34 companies with PESSI/SESSI and 37 companies with excise and taxation department. The SECP has also started a dedicated WhatsApp facility for receiving queries. During December 2022, responses were sent to around 1,382 WhatsApp queries of local and foreign investors pertaining to name availability and incorporation; with 96% satisfaction rate.