February 20, 2014. Yekaterinburg strategic development plan served as a team-building document for the city council and the local business community, whose joint interests are focused on the development of the social infrastructure, Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Alexander Vysokinsky said in the course of a TV interview at Open Studio.

'The main factor we kept in mind while working on this plan was making sure the general public took part in the development of the plan and that the business community joined in the process as well. The city council is the locomotive here, and science is an accompaniment that is useful in terms of new trends and approaches,' Vysokinsky said.

He explained that the local residents' interests were of primary concern when the strategic development plan was elaborated and implemented.

'Yekaterinburg must keep its industrial resource status, but a human being should not be seen as a production resource in this scheme. A human is the basis of the plan, and his or her interests are centered around personal development. We need people to grow up and stay here and their children to study here, and this is what the strategic plan aims at. The rest is about the economic mechanisms,' Deputy Mayor said.