The national operator Moldtelecom has become the first company to win a gold medal of first class in the Best Taxpayers Competition for the performance of earning the status of Moldova's major corporate taxpayer for seven consecutive years, Info-Prim Neo reports. Moldtelecom also netted two other prizes at an awards ceremony which was held on Wednesday to culminate the series of events dedicated to Made in Moldova Expo. These are the State Prize for Achievements in Quality and the Grand Prix “Golden Mercury” in the 2008 Trade Mark Competition. In 2008 Moldtelecom contributed over 400 million lei in taxes to the State Budget. After getting onstage to collect the awards, Moldtelecom director Gheorghe Ursachi said: “It is the staff that won today. I want to thank every employee, every subdivision head, because the prizes that we gained today represent the efforts of each and all members of our personnel”. Ursachi also thanked the government for the policies and strategies carried out in the area of telecommunication. "Without a clearly defined policy in this filed, Moldtelecom wouldn't stand on equal footing with its European Union counterparts”, added Ursachi. Among Moldtelecom's plans for this year is to continue implementing its program for extending landline telephone coverage for 2005-2010; to diversify services, in particular video telephony, including Internet protocol-based video telephony, on its Triple Play platform.