Finishing touches have been put on a new large holding company in the electronics industry, the KNTS Public Limited Company, that joins together two companies, the OAO Science Center Concern of Russia and STROM telecom s.r.o. company of the Czech Republic.

Establishment of ??? KNTS capped the efforts to create a diversified high-tech holding company that designs, develops and commercializes microelectronics products, industrial electronics, telecommunications equipment and household appliances. The new holding company and a considerable number of its enterprises are based on Zelenograd, Moscow oblast. ??? KNTS also controls several enterprises in Voronezh, South Russia, and Prague, the Czech Republic.

OAO KNTS's Board of Trustees is chaired by Nobel laureate Zhores Alferov, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Yevgeni Novitsky, President of SISTEMA JSFC, was elected chairman of OAO KNTS's Board of Directors. Gennady Krasnikov, General Director of OAO Science Center Concern since 1999, a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was elected General Director.

In the view of Yevgeni Novitsky, creation of ??? KNTS will allow related branches of the corporation's future-oriented high-tech business to be brought together in a single management complex. This is a consistent step in implementing its growth strategy and improving its business management structure.

The OAO Science Center Concern is Russia's biggest research and development complex in microelectronics and electronic technology. The company was established by SISTEMA JSFC in 1997. The company comprises science research institutes and electronics manufacturers in Zelenograd and Voronezh, including the undisputed leader in Russian microelectronics, a public limited company (OAO) formed by the Molecular Electronics Research Institute and the Mikron Plant, which is the largest producer of integrated microcircuits in Russia and other CIS countries turning out over 500 kinds of integrated microcircuits and semiconductor devices. Mikron is the leading Russian microelectronics exporter, with over 70 per cent of its product exported to countries of Europe. Southeast Asia and America. It was the first Russian high-tech enterprise to be traded on the stock market. The company also comprises the VZPP-Mikron plants (built around the Voronezh semiconductor devices plant), Elaks, Elion and Quant plants in Zelenograd, the Precision Engineering Institute, and a number of other enterprises and science design centers. The company is currently implementing a program developed jointly with the McKinsey consulting company in an effort to develop a Russian umbrella brand of household appliances (Sitronics trade mark).

STROM telecom s.r.o. of the Czech Republic is a telecommunications company manufacturing a wide range of modern communication equipment, information systems and technologies, and making improvements on existing analog and digital electrical communication systems. The company has been in the communication business since 1993. It maintains several representative offices and subsidiaries, the biggest of which are situated in Central and Eastern Europe. Initially, the company was established around the manufacturing facilities of the Tesla industrial association in the Czech Republic. Many years of experience and tradition of that world-famous Czech company served as a rock-firm foundation for a new-generation telecommunications company. Today, the company's portfolio comprises more than 20 products and systems developed by its proprietary product Development Center. The company employs a trained and skilled work force with long work records. All products manufactured by the company conform to international ISO 9001 quality standards. The company's efforts are geared to provide a full range of telecommunications services, from improvements in existing communication systems to commercialization of new telecommunications and information systems built around modern technologies. The company accepts orders from operators of all communication types (fixed, mobile, and so on) in Russia and other CIS countries, and Western and Central Europe.