Moscow, 5 October 2006. RAO "UES of Russia" and the European electricity and heat generator VGB PowerTech. e.V.* have signed a Memorandum on Cooperation in developing the Market to support bilateral supplies of products, services and technologies for the electricity industry.

The Memorandum provides for the creation of a market for mutually beneficial supplies based on the B2B-energo e-trading system, which provides a common information and trading environment and delivers transparency, maximum information availability, non-discriminatory access, and equal competitive opportunities for all market participants.

The parties stated that such a market cannot develop without further efforts to harmonize the Russian technical standards and regulations with the international IEC/ISO standards, the regional CEN/CENELEC standards, and the DIN national standards. The Memorandum emphasizes that common standardization principles will help remove trade restrictions and ensure promotion of sector-related products on an equal competitive basis.

In order to implement these objectives, the companies have agreed to set up a Coordination Council headed by Yakov Urinson, Deputy Chairman of RAO UES Management Board, and Karl Theis, Executive Managing Director of VGB.