Moscow, 16 March 2005. RAO "UES of Russia" has been named the winner of the All Russian Awards "The Best State Customer 2004" in the Category "The Best Customer Among Natural Monopolies".

In 2004, the entities of the Holding Company of RAO "UES of Russia" held 6736 procurement tenders while other natural monopolies of the country held only 975 tenders. The total value of goods procured by the Holding Company's entities was in excess of RUB 60 billion, which is comparable to the value of all goods procured through tenders by all other natural monopolies in Russia.

The Award winners were selected based on the following criteria: the share of contracts to purchase goods, works and services made through a tendering process; savings achieved through tendering; absence of violations in the course of procurement.

The Awards are organized by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation together with the Association for Promoting the Development of Competitive Procurement, and the "Konkursnye Torgi" Publishers ("Competitive Tendering"). The organizers seek to popularize the positive experience in holding tenders to procure goods, works, and services by public organizations. The Awards are granted in four categories: "Best Federal Customer", "Best Regional Customer", "Best Municipal Customer", and "Best Customer Among Natural Monopolies".

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The system of competitive procurement of goods, works, and services has existed in the Company since 1999. Since the creation in 2002 of the Information and Trading System "Market for Products, Services and Technologies for the Electricity Industry "B2B-energo", enterprises of RAO "UES of Russia" have started to use b2b e-trading in their procurement activities. In 2005, RAO "UES of Russia" enterprises plan to make at least 50% of their competitive procurement using e-business systems.