Multimedia portal "Exclusive" with the support of Kcell announces the start of the national project "Yel tulghasy" ("The name of the Motherland"). The idea of the project is in selecting the most significant Kazakhstanis whose names are now associated with the achievements of the country's independence. These are the people whose works, achievements and creativity in social activities, arts and culture, business, sports and science form the shape of independent Kazakhstan.

"Kcell" company is of the same age as the independent Kazakhstan. For 17 years we've been supporting the growth and economic development of the young state. Behind any success, whether it is a large business or a local one, there are always people whose vision, sincere love and devotion to their homeland, involvement, fortitude and professionalism contribute to the progress of society as a whole. Therefore, we are pleased to be a part of this important project, which is draught to identify those who have made the greatest contribution to the achievements the entire country is proud of", - said Arti Ots, the Chief Executive Officer of "Kcell".

Voting for the contest is held in seven categories: social activities, business, arts and culture, science, sports, new name, a person in the history of Kazakhstan. Each category is represented by 10 nominees - the Kazakhstanis who have achieved certain success in their field and have become well-known in the country. It is allowed to vote for a particular participant for only one time. Voting is available on the website and by sending SMS with the candidate's code number to 8785 (the cost of SMS for Beeline, Kcell, activ, Tele2, Altel customers is 7 tenge, including VAT).

The project will run from June to September, 2015. The results will be announced in October, 2015.

Kazakhstan's first national competition "Yel tulghasy" ("The name of the Motherland") was launched on December 22, 2011 and became one of the most successful mass reputational projects in the country. Voting was conducted in five categories: social activities, business, arts and culture, science and sports.

Within four months over 80 thousand people took part in the voting, herewith 63% of votes were received by SMS, and 37% by Internet. The website was visited by more than 20 000 people, and the amount of votes was almost in 4 times more than the number of the visitors of the website. This means that people have been learning about the vote from each other, telling their friends about the nominees and their contribution to the achievements of Kazakhstan, and about voting process. The main goal of the project was to introduce people who made the greatest contribution to the development of Kazakhstan to other citizens of the state.

The people's vote web-site 20let.kz was visited by 22 553 people from 87 countries, including Kazakhstan, Russia, UK, Ukraine, USA, Uzbekistan, France, Germany, Canada, South Korea, Turkey and others. The site was visited by people from 665 cities of the world, and the most frequent Kazakhstani visitors were the residents of Almaty, Astana, Shymkent, Temirtau, Kostanai, Karaganda, Pavlodar, Semipalatinsk, Atyrau, Aral, Petropavlovsk, Kokshetau and other cities.

Most of the votes were given for the nominees of "Science" category (70% of all votes), followed by the nominees of "Culture and Art" (18%), "Sports" (8%), "Social activities" (2%) and "Business" (2%). The winners were Edil Ergozhin, Bakhytzhan Kanapyanov, Murat Auezov, Nurlan Smagulov and Ilya Ilyin. The screenwriter and director Ermek Tursunov won in the "People's choice" category.

This year organizers plan to attract the attention of more than 100 thousand people from Kazakhstan and abroad.

Information for editorial staff

Kcell provides mobile voice telecommunications services, messaging services, value-added services such as multimedia and mobile content services, as well as data transmission services including internet access. It has two brands: the Kcell brand, which is targeted primarily at corporate subscribers (including government subscribers), and the Activ brand, which is targeted primarily at mass-market subscribers. The Company offers its services through its extensive, high quality network, which covers substantially all of the populated territory of Kazakhstan.

In December 2012, Kcell successfully completed its offering of GDR's on the London Stock Exchange and common shares on KASE. The price was set at USD 10.50 per GDR and KZT 1,578.68 per share with each GDR representing one share. The offering consisted of a sale by TeliaSonera of 50 million shares, which represent 25 percent of Kcell's share capital. TeliaSonera holds directly and indirectly 61.9% of the Company's common shares.

Kcell plans to benefit from the significant growth potential for mobile data services in Kazakhstan. The Company intends to continue to invest in the deployment of its 3G network to expand coverage. Kcell aims to maintain its market leadership in terms of revenue and the number of subscribers by offering its products and services at competitive prices, expanding its offering of products and services, maintaining the high quality of its network and enhancing its brand value.

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