The companies directorate of the Ministry of Economy licensed 598 new limited liabilities in 2011 with a total capital of SYP 26.215 billion.
Out of this capital volume, some SYP 1.489 billion represented the size of investments by foreign investors.
 
These figures, reported by Al-Watan, point to a 17 percent annual decline in terms of the number of companies, to a 76 percent increase in terms of capital size and to a 27 percent decline in terms of foreign investments.
 
In 2010, 722 new LLCs were established with a capital of SYP 14.863, of which SYP 2.046 billion represented the size of the capital owned by foreign investors
 
Meanwhile, 27 joint stock companies with a capital of SYP 17.692 billion were registered last year compared with 7 joint stock companies with a capital of SYP 6.866 billion in 2010.
 
Among JSCs registered last year, 23 are private and 4 public, while in 2010, 3 were private JSCs and 4 public.
 
Many of the companies registered in the last few years are actually existing companies that are transforming to the LLC or JSC status in order to benefit from incentives provided by law, initially ending on December 31, 2010 before they were extended an additional year. Hence, a lot of well established companies were registered last year under a new form.
 
Government sources have been quoted as saying that the deadline would be extended one more year until the end of 2012.