Myanmar is planning to set up a securities and exchange commission to help develop a bond market in the country, the weekly Myanmar Times reported Monday.

The commission, which will be the first government body of its kind, will serve to develop and regulate a securities and bond market in Myanmar, the report quoted sources with the Ministry of Finance and Revenue as saying.

The plan of the establishment came in response to the plans by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to set up a bond market in the region in the future.

There is only one securities exchange center in Myanmar launched in June 1996. The center emerged as a joint venture between Myanmar economic Bank and the Daiwa Institute of Research of Japan each holding 50 percent equity of share to initiate a securities market in the country in support of marketisation, privatization and internalization of the Myanmar economy.

The Myanmar securities exchange center sells shares from two public companies -- Forest Products Joint Venture Corporation and Myanmar Citizen Bank as well as treasury bonds from the Central Bank of Myanmar, according to the report.

Source: Xinhua