On 29th November Director General of OJSC North-West Telecom V.A. Akulich met with Leningrad Region Governor V.P. Serdyukov. As the result of this meeting, the Cooperation Agreement between the Leningrad Region Government and OJSC North-West Telecom was signed.

This Agreement will help maintain the existing business relations between the parties and continue the joint work aimed at developing communications in the region. In cooperation with the branch Lensvyaz of OJSC North-West Telecom, the Leningrad Region Government implements the federal target program “Social Development of Rural Areas Till the Year 2010”, regional target program “Provision of Telephone Services for Little-Populated Communities and Social Amenities of the Leningrad Region as well as for the Great Patriotic War Participants and Veterans for the Years 2004-2006”.

According to the Agreement, the most important lines of cooperation between the Regional Government and OJSC NWT are as follows:

• Formation and implementation of the state policy in the Leningrad Region in the field of development of communications networks with the objective of creating a unified information and telecommunications space in Russia;
• Participation in the regional and federal programs implemented in the Region, including with the use of the Call-center based on the regional service 09 to study public opinion and open hot lines on the request of the Leningrad Region Government;
• Provision of transportation systems and data transmission centers to create a unified telecommunications network of the Leningrad Region’s administration bodies under the federal target program “Electronic Russia”.

At the briefing held after the signing of the Agreement, V.A. Akulich, Director General of OJSC North-West Telecom, clarified the outlooks for the development of the branch Lensvyaz of OAO North-West Telecom in the Leningrad Region. In 2005, OJSC NWT plans to invest 291.9 million rubles in the development of communications in the Leningrad Region, the priority target being to introduce 18.3 thousand new numbers and install 10.0 thousand telephone sets for the Region residents.

The same day V.A. Akulich visited Gatchina and met with the branch’s management. During the meeting, visual connections were established with Tikhvin and Lodeynoye Polye. In the South-East communications center in Tikhvin, a digital telephone exchange will be put into operation in December 2004 to replace the Region’s last decade-step exchange. In the North-East communications center in Lodeynoye Polye, the SAPFIR multi-service center equipment is being tested in operation.