August 21, 2014. It now takes less time to get access to Sverdlovsk Region’s electric grids, which has a direct impact on investment climate improvements, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policies Department says based on the conclusions made at the local government meeting.

Sverdlovsk Region Economics Minister Dmitri Nozhenko explained that the electric power suppliers’ regulations had been improved and trilateral agreements had been signed by local suppliers, Sverdlovsk Region Dispatching Office, and Sverdlovsk Region Government.

Thanks to this, getting connected to electric power supply grids is now 30 to 45 days faster, while the number of stages a company has to go through to get technological connection is now down to four. An important thing is that a special local bill was drafted and adopted for cases when no construction permit is required. This reduced the waiting time for such facilities to 85 days (for one, because there is no need to go through an examination by government experts). In the first three months of 2014, MRSK Urala, the electric power supplier, actually connected 36% more companies than had originally been planned based on the number of agreements signed; the figure is expected to exceed the plan for the first half of the year by 28%.