stocks and social services

The Mongolian Stock Exchange, a government-owned corporation, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange have signed a vaguely-worded agreement, moving them towards eventually allowing trading on both exchanges. This seems like a good move for Mongolia, making it easier for outside investors to get a piece of the action and expanding Mongolia's financial interaction with countries other than Russia or China.

Mongolia's social services have recently been ranked among the top four in Asia. Asia Development Bank says that Mongolia excels in providing its citizens with welfare, employment, social security, health insurance, micro-credit, child protection, education and health support programs. I was surprised to see that they exceeded the Philippines in this respect, but that may reflect the somewhat easier task of providing for three million citizens as compared the the ninety million of the Philippines.