Our fundamental principles are:

• Responsibility
• Reliability
• Commitment

Principles are not intended to be the stuff of after-dinner speeches, but shall form the foundation of our attitudes and influence our decisions and actions. They form a starting point for our approach to our customers and to each other, and for recruiting, training, development and assessment of our employees.

Behind the basic principles are some fundamental assumptions without which we would be unable to carry on our business. These assumptions are not defined as basic principles, but as guiding requirements.

Ethical Guidelines and the Ethical Council
Telenor's Ethical Council consists of a wide range of representatives of management, employees and employee representatives, and has held several meetings in 2000. The Council's mandate is to discuss, consider and communicate our standpoints on various ethical dilemmas. Matters which have been discussed in 2000 include:

• The Ethical Council has made a recommendation that Telenor should apply for membership of the newly established division of Transparency International, which is an organisation dedicated to countering corruption, as soon as this division has clarified its membership conditions, etc.
• The Council has discussed various matters regarding potential conflicts of interest between members of the workforce and Telenor as employer. Several of these matters concerned cases where employees have personal involvement, for example through positions on the board of directors. In the future, proposals will be put forward for measures aimed at preventing such conflicts of interest.
• A representative of the Norwegian Competition Authority has advised the Council regarding some of the consequences for Telenor of the launch of its shares on the stock market.
• Telenor has received an application for assistance in connection with studies for a doctorate in ethics. This will involve a number of Telenor's employees being interviewed, with due consideration to requirements of confidentiality and personal privacy. The intention is that this postgraduate work will be able to provide indications of which ethical dilemmas Telenor employees may meet and to develop tools which will make them better able to handle them. The Ethical Council reacted positively to this application and confirmed that an informal management group has been set up under the leadership of Telenor Corporate University.
• The Ethical Council has discussed guidelines for the receipt of gifts or assets of significant value in foreign countries. The Council stresses the importance of openness in connection with such matters with reference to ethical guidelines in general. An assessment must be carried out of each individual case, in which the resources of the International Centre must also be involved.
• A presentation has been made to the Ethical Council of the Corporate Social Responsibility project, which prepared a technical report recommending that a number of technical fields be focused upon and considered as a whole.
• The Ethical Council convened at short notice when one of the business areas requested an assessment and recommendation in connection with a specific international investment.