On 19th October 2007 the Corporate Governance Score Service of Standard & Poor’s affirmed the corporate governance score (CGS) of JSC North-West Telecom at the level of 5.6 according to the national scale. Besides, the corporate governance score of JSC North-West Telecom according to the international scale was confirmed at the level of 5+.

According to analysts of Standard and Poor’s, the confirmation of the scores reflects the active involvement of minority representatives in board-level decision making, a good overall level of transparency, and strong investor relations.

Standard & Poor’s has noted the following properties among the strengths of JSC North-West Telecom 's corporate governance practices:

• involvement of the shareholders and the Board of Directors in management supervision, and an active role of independent directors;
• active work of committee s of   the Board of Directors , especially the Audit Committee ;
• the fact that an unconditionally positive auditor 's conclusion on IFRS reporting has been obtained for two years;
• a high level of the Company 's transparency;
• the active policy of the Company in interaction with investors;
• support of the operation process of the Board of Directors by the Corporate Secretary of the Company.  

Thus, the assessment of the corporate governance practices of JSC North-West Telecom has remained the highest among the interregional companies , corresponding to the best world analogs by such components as "Transparency, disclosure, and audit" and "Shareholder rights and stakeholders relations".

The complete report on the score can be found at the site of Standard & Poor’s www.governance.standardandpoors.com and at the Russian- language site www.standardandpoors.ru.