Moscow, 8 April 2005. The overall trading volume in the B2B-energo, the e-commerce system used by the companies of RAO "UES of Russia" Holding Company in procurement activities, has exceeded RUB10 billion since the system's launch.

Currently, the system participants include about 100 regional energos and AO-power plants of RAO "UES of Russia", and over 2,800 suppliers from 22 countries of the world. Since the launch of B2B-energo, over 2,000 tenders were announced on the trading floor, with over 7,000 bids and offers made through the system. The range of goods, works and services delivered through B2B-energo includes dozens of thousands of items.

Trading in B2B-Enego has helped RAO UES entities reduce their procurement costs by one third, and cut the price of the goods, works, and services procured by 9%. If products are purchased through e-auctions (one of the system's forms of work), the price is reduced by an average of 17% of the original value. According to expert estimates, the savings from the use of the B2B-energo system only by RAO UES enterprises may exceed RUB11 billion in the next three years.

The use of e-commerce is one of the key factors contributing to the reduction of production costs at the Holding Company's entities and the lower growth of energy tariffs. For that reason, RAO "UES of Russia" management decided to carry out at least 50% of all competitive procurement tenders in 2005 through the e-trading systems.

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