The Stock Exchange must be established to help protect ignorant investors, said Deputy Finance Minister Dr Maung Maung Thein. “If we do not establish a stock exchange, people may be cheated out of their money by others posing as public companies,” he said. There are an estimated 200 companies in Myanmar with the potential to list on the stock exchange due to open in October 2015, of which only five or six companies would meet the conditions for listing, which included transparency, international accounting standards and tax compliance. The Myanmar Economic Bank and Japan’s Daiwa Securities Group and the Tokyo Stock Exchange have already signed an MOU to float on the stock exchange.