Next month, foreigners will be able to make trades on the Yangon Stock Exchange as Myanmar continues to refine its corporate infrastructure and open its markets to direct foreign investment.

In July of last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar (SECM) announced that foreigners would be able to acquire shares up to 35 per cent of companies traded on the YSX, and now a SECM official has told the Myanmar Times that the change will be made in March.

The move is the latest in a series of measures to reform and open up Myanmar’s business scene. Last year, a rule change allowed foreign companies to purchase shares in Myanmar banks, and several international investors are already taking advantage. Furthermore, in January of this year, the Ministry of Commerce announced new corporate governance guidelines for large companies, to be delivered in April. The regulations aim to improve the transparency, efficiency and reliability of Myanmar corporates. These steps may eventually reverse the Myanmar business environment’s poor international reputation. In the International Finance Corporation’s 2018 Myanmar Corporate Governance Scorecard, Myanmar firms scored on average 30 percent, well under the overall ASEAN average of 69 percent. To make matters worse, last week the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force placed Myanmar on its money laundering watch list.

The Myanmar stock exchange has five listed companies: First Myanmar Investment (FMI), Myanmar Thilawa SEZ holdings, First Private Bank, Myanmar Citizens Bank and TMH Telecom. For now, business on the exchange is booming: In August, YSX announced its busiest month to date with 322,176 shares traded, valuing MMK 1.9 billion.