OREANDA-NEWS. On 20 February 2008 was announced, that General director of "Southern Telecommunications Company" PJSC Alexander Andreev met with the Governor of the Astrakhan region Alexander Zhilkin. During the discussion of the situation in the telecommunications Company and in the Astrakhan region it was noted that since the previous meeting held a half-year ago the parties had showed a good progress.

"UTK" PJSC showed good financial and operational results in 2007 implementing its investment program of 3.954 billion roubles of which 266 million roubles were invested in the Astrakhan branch of the Company.

Astrakhan region was a success in realization of mutually beneficial agreements with the Caspian countries. Active operation of the international transport corridor "North - South" has almost started. The region plans to construct several new enterprises. "Economic situation being improved, the region is in need of well-developed telecommunications and information infrastructure", - the Governor said, - "our region is traditionally open to innovations, whether it be new technologies or services". Alexander Zhilkin thanked telecommunications workers for their participation in social projects.

The negotiations resulted in signing the Agreement on mutual cooperation between the Government of the Astrakhan region and "Southern Telecommunications Company" PJSC. The subject of the Agreement is to coordinate efforts on development of telecommunications infrastructure and integration of the most remote districts of the Astrakhan region into uniform info-communication area of the Russian Federation.

Main directions of the cooperation are implementation of social programs and projects (including the target program "Development of rural telephony in the Astrakhan region in 2006-2010"), maximal satisfaction of the needs of population and business for telecom services, roll out of new technologies and services, construction of multi-service networks.
During the visit to the Astrakhan region General director of "UTK" PJSC Alexander Andreev presented a twenty-volume edition of the Nobel Prize winners’ works to the regional scientific library named after N.K.Krupskaya. 25 volumes of the same edition were presented by the company to the library in August 2007. According to the director of the library Larisa Kolenko, this exclusive multi-volume edition is very popular among readers. Students, post-graduate students, teachers of high schools use these books to prepare their studies and scientific works. Thanks to Southern Telecommunications Company, Astrakhan is one of few regional centers possessing complete set of the Nobel Prize winners’ works.