A recent meeting of Ministry for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region was devoted to evaluating the performance of the region’s international activity in 2006. Sverdlovsk Region’s foreign trade turnover went up 27.1% compared to a year earlier and amounted to $9.494 billion. The regional enterprises and organizations cooperated with 136 countries, which covers export to 114 countries and import from 110 countries.

The export structure remained quite traditional: metal and metal-based goods, chemical produce, machine-building products. As regards import, these are mainly machines, mineral goods, and chemical produce. One major obstacle that prevents a more intensive development of foreign trade is the inefficiency of cooperation mechanisms among the region’s machine building companies (particularly in terms of their markets, advertising campaigns, tender participation, opening of representations, and building distribution ties abroad).