THE government is planning to establish a Securities and Exchange Commission to help develop a bond market in Myanmar, said a senior official from the Ministry of Finance and Revenue on August 29.

“The commission will be the first government body to develop and regulate a securities and bond market in Myanmar,” he said.

Myanmar has only one securities exchange centre, which was established in 1996 as a joint venture between Myanma Economic Bank (MEB) and Japan’s Diawa Institute of Research to initiate a securities market in Myanmar to support marketisation, privatisation and internalisation of the Myanmar economy.

The Myanmar Securities Exchange Centre sells shares from two public companies – Forest Products Joint Venture Corporation and Myanma Citizen Bank – as well as treasury bonds from the Central Bank of Myanmar.

The establishment of the new Securities and Exchange Commission is in response to plans by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to set up a bond market in Southeast Asia in the near future, the official said.