On January 13, 2005, International Financial Corporation (IFC) totalized of cooperation with North-West Telecom JSC in the framework of the Project Corporate Management in Russia. The Project was supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the International Business Agency in cooperation with the Ministry for Economics of Netherlands (EVD).

The International Financial Corporation, the investment hub of the World Bank Group, the largest investor to private sector of the emergences market countries, approved in 2003 North-West Telecom JSC as a pilot enterprise of the Project Corporate Management in Russia.

The decision to assign the pilot enterprise status was made by the expert council of the IFC based on the results of consideration of the official application of the Company. Selection criteria were adherence to the corporate management principles, aiming to attract the financial resources and increase of efficiency and meeting a number of legal requirements. NWT has become one of 6 official project partners.

In the framework of the project, North-West Telecom participated in open seminars and trainings and received detailed practical recommendations for improving the practice of corporate management. The IFC experts prepared legal documents, according to international standards and gave an expert assessment of the management principles existing in the Company.

During the official meeting that was attended by representatives of the Federal Service for Financial Markets, Center for Ethics and Corporate Management and the North-West Bank Association, Sebastian Molineus – Project Head in Russia – handed certificates to the participants of the Project Corporate Management in Russia. So, Mr. N. Bredkov – Deputy General Manager – Manager for Corporate Governance of NWT JSC was awarded too.

North-West Telecom traditionally devotes careful attention to the increase of quality of corporate management and actively works on introducing the corporate management principles and financial PR, to the requirements of the international investment community.