Rossiya (Moscow), October 15, 2003

The national business award "Company of the Year" celebrates its first important date, its fifth anniversary, which means it is time to summarize results. The main issue that arises in this respect is whether authors of the award succeeded in promoting the achievement of the ambitious goals they set, that is to propel business activity in Russia, attract the attention of the global business community to the best domestic companies, help these companies attract foreign investments and make ties with foreign partners.

Not long ago, President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia's full-fledged integration in the global economic system was a priority for the domestic economy. The president also emphasized an important role of science intensive technologies and increasing the corporate culture. The "Company of the Year" project is based on the same values.

Russian business is not as black as it is painted. However, just a few years ago foreigners avoided it like the plague. Times change, and domestic companies have started to realize gradually that it is profitable to operate in accordance with civilized standards. More Russian companies are adopting up-to-date technologies, improving corporate management, achieving the transparency of their business process (more than 300 Russian companies switched to International Accounting Standards), paying taxes honestly and creating new jobs. Investors trust them and they are moving our economy forward, which, without a doubt, deserve pubic recognition. These are the companies that win "Company of the Year" prizes.

The award's expert council consisting of influential government and public figures, representatives of the business elite, paid special attention to the openness of nominees. Information openness is one of the necessary conditions for effective operations of a modern company. There is no secret that this factor is next to a key factor for investors. According to expert estimates, the insufficient transparency and low-quality accounting of domestic companies cost Russia $150bn. This is a huge sum that could be invested in the Russian economy if all our businessmen learned to communicate with investors in their language.

However, don't think that everything is so gloomy. Domestic business is getting mature at a full speed. It is not accidental that Moody's international investment agency granted an investment rating to Russia at the beginning of this month. This event opens blight outlooks for a large flow of investments. Vladimir Putin stated that the new investment rating of Russia testified to serious positive movements towards a better investment attractiveness of the country. Leading Russian and foreign analysts have the same opinion. They are certain that Russia is entering a new level in its development, which is the merit of businesses, authorities and society in general. The attitude of the society to entrepreneurship activities is changing for the better, slowly but surely, and the information agency RosBusinessConsulting (RBC), the organizer of the "Company of the Year" award, is trying to promote this tendency. "One of our major tasks, speaking in images, is to erect bridges between business circles and the general public," RBC General Director Yury Rovensky was quoted as saying.

"We fulfill this task through various projects, including the national awards 'Company of the Year' and 'Person of the Year' and the first Russian business TV channel RBC TV, which also carries out an educational function."

Initially, nominees for "Company of the Year" were proposed by Moscow journalists. In 2001, the project was joined by RBC and the award achieved a virtually national scale: the nomination process started to be fully controlled by a representative expert council. This could not have a small impact on the prestige of the award: the number of companies nominated for the award is growing rapidly every year. Today, the "Company of the Year" award ceremony is one of the big events in business. So it only remains to congratulate our colleagues from RBC and wish them further success.

Tatyana Ilyina