On March 18, 2006, Sverdlovsk Region Governor Eduard Rossel met Adnan Kassar, the Chairman and Chief Executive of Fransabank Group, President of Beirut Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Governor’s PR Department says.

‘Mr Kassar is the head of the biggest Lebanese bank and a number of international business corporations. Mr Rossel explained to Mr Kassar in detail the 15-year-long way of Sverdlovsk Region, the former secret land of defense industry, to its present level of world fame. Now the regional foreign-trade turnover comes to $ 8 billion. Sverdlovsk is the only Russian region that has a 15-year-long comprehensive development program. According to the program, Sverdlovsk Region will need $50 billion to complete technical re-equipment of its works and factories,’ the Department reports.

‘While setting up the Russian-Arabian Committee, Mr Kassar had got acquainted with Dmitry Pumpyansky, Chairman of Trubnaya Metallurgicheskaya Kompaniya. Mr Pumpyansky invited Mr Kassar to visit the Urals,’ the Department says.