Corporate Responsibility

The Group is committed to managing its business to have an overall positive impact on society. We seek to achieve this through a corporate culture which fosters a fundamental commitment in our management and workforce to ethical business practices in terms of our operations, our impact on the environment and local communities, and in how we treat and develop our workforce.

We value our relationships within the communities in which we operate and realise that nurturing those relationships can benefit us all – employees, shareholders and society as a whole. This belief is central to our commitment to operate our core business in a socially responsible way, and is complemented by our investment in the social programs administered by the local governments in the regions where we operate, as a contributing partner to help improve the social infrastructure of Kazakhstan.

During the fiscal year ended 31 March 2009, the Group contributed $650,000 (2008: $850,000) to the social investment programmes of the Aktobe and Atyrau Oblasts, and to the City of Astana. Max Petroleum’s ongoing social investment programme has contributed a total of $3.6 million. The Group did not make any political contributions during the period.

We continue to be active in funding foreign study programmes for Kazakh students attending universities abroad and we are particularly proud of our training and continuing education programmes for our local employees. Max Petroleum is a committed long-term partner within the Kazakh communities in which it operates.