On October 29, 2008, at its regular session, the Auditing Committee of North-West Telecom reviewed and approved several initiatives intended to improve the Company’s investment attractiveness. Among them are:

- Quarterly issue of unaudited reporting according to IAS;

- Prepare for certification and implementation of an Integrated Management System (IMS);

- Report on steady development of the business (Social Responsibility Report) 

It is planned to start implementing the adopted actions to improve the Company’s informational transparency (issue of financial and non-financial reports), and management systems according to the world standards, in 2009.

Due to quarterly publications of unaudited reporting as per the International Accounting Standards (IAS), North-West Telecom will be able to quarterly present its business results in a language understandable to the investor society, thus making the company’s statements comparable to peers outside Russia.

Preparation for certification and implementation of an Integrated Management System (IMS) based on a package of international standards: ISO 9000 (Quality Management), ISO 1400 (Environmental Management), OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health and Safety), will enable North-West Telecom to improve business process transparency, standardize the company’s quality management, and as a result, increase the company’s attractiveness for the investor community.

Steady development reporting will enable the company to systemize and implement business standards considering economical, environmental, and social/ethic aspects in dealing with the key stakeholders. This will result in the issue of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report for 2007-2008, the first one in the history of NWT. From this point on, it is planned to issue audited CSR reports at the frequency of once in two years.

As Ella Tomilina, Corporate Affairs Officer, noted: “Knowing the unstable situation on the world’s financial markets, when the investors’ trust in such or another company are coming to the forefront, NWT’s steps towards higher informational transparency and implementation of management and social responsibility systems meeting the world standards, will make the company more open, transparent, and above all, understandable for investors. In the long term, implementation of these actions will promote investment attractiveness of North-West Telecom.