Acting Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Galina Kovaleva coordinated a cabinet meeting devoted to implementation of the President’s address to the Federal Assembly in the first quarter of 2007. One of the reports was presented by First Deputy Minister for Economics and Labor Nikolai Bespamyatnikh, who said Sverdlovsk Region was doing quite well in terms of economic development. The region’s industrial production index went up 8.4% compared to a year earlier; so did the amount of investments (28%) that now comes to 9.5 billion RUR. The average pay rose by 32.2% against January 2006 and now

All the divisions of Nizhniy Tagil customs processed 2,600 freight declarations in March 2007, which exceeds the figures for the previous March by 21.3%, reports the spokesperson for Ural Customs Administration. Foreign trade turnover within the area of Nizhniy Tagil customs amounted to $255.7 million, which is 20.2% better than a year earlier, with 82.7% of goods transferred to and from the far abroad and 17.3% shipped to and from the countries of the CIS. The import/export ratio was estimated at 12.5% to 87.5%. The freight turnover amounted to more than 407,000 tons, with 238,500 tons of

Online Bank24.ru registered its 4,500th client on April 16, 2007. This was Uniland Yekaterinburg, one of Sverdlovsk Region’s largest wholesale supermarkets. The winning customer was awarded with six months of free service. ‘I chose Bank24.ru because of a user-friendly interface and excellent operative qualities. The system allows you to create new documents easily since it supports quite a few specialized reference books. Besides, I was pleased to find out that the bank now accepts all the non-cash payments until 6 PM. It’s a great perk for Uniland, as wholesale trading involves suppliers and

SKB-Bank offered its clients 229 mortgages in January-March 2007 compared with 207 a year earlier and only 159 in the first quarter of 2005. 32 mortgages were actually given to borrowers wishing to invest in apartments currently under construction. SKB-Bank’s mortgages are now available not only to people living in Yekaterinburg but also to dwellers of other cities who can visit the bank’s subsidiaries located all over Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Volgograd Region, and Rostov Region; one third of mortgages provided in the first quarter of 2007 was issued outside Yekaterinburg. ‘This

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met head of the regional division of Highway Administration Vladimir Plishkin to discuss the highway extension proposal for Yekaterinburg-Koltsovo airport route. This is planned to become a four- to six-lane highway; 11.2 kilometers of road will undergo reconstruction using 3,000 tons of cement and more than 100,000 tons of asphalt concrete. The project is expected to be completed in May 2009.

Ural Airlines has recently reported that the carrier is fully prepared for the summer season. The company is still the regional leader in terms of Egypt- and Turkey-bound flights, and the number of passengers is expected to grow even further this summer. Chartered flights to Saloniki, Cyprus, and Bulgaria are going to be introduced in the very near future. Some new destinations will also become available in Chelyabinsk and some other cities, says the company’s press officer. Speaking of Chelyabinsk, there are three chartered flights to Antalya consolidated by Coral and More Travel this year;

Federal Antimonopoly Service has been trying to reveal any cases of collective domination on the regional retail oil markets. The law says that any three bodies possessing an over 50% share of the market, or any five bodies possessing more than 70% of the market (provided each player has at least 8%), can be classed as an instance of collective domination; such cases have been found in 38 Russian Regions, namely: Bashkortostan, Altai, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Karelia, Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Krasnodar Region, Perm Region, Stavropol Region, Amur Region, Arkhangelsk Region, Astrakhan

‘The state of Sverdlovsk Region Railways is deplorable and, as a matter of fact, this is the most poorly functioning section in Russia. The losses amounted to 13 million RUR last year; to make matters worse, the company failed to achieve the target performance figures for the first quarter of 2007,’ President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin announced at a meeting with the company representatives today. ‘The safety level was obviously shameful last year; there were cases of setoffs, five instances of derailing, and damaging of goods. Anyone has a right to err, but if this person’s mistake

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel held a meeting with Koltsovo airport management on April 13, 2007 to discuss the summer aviation season, reports the spokesperson for the Governor. The meeting was attended by Head of the Governor’s Administration Alexander Levin, acting Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Galina Kovaleva, Ural Airlines CEO Sergey Skuratov, and General Director of Koltsovo airport Mikhail Maximov. The meeting participants had to discuss changes in the schedule of summer south-bound flights. Koltsovo suggested changing Ural Airlines’ traditional flight departure

The planning project of the first section of Academic district of Yekaterinburg was approved by the Mayor. This project is the key document to be used in the further construction process that determines the boundaries of the district, general characteristics, and engineering particularities. The builders can now start getting things ready in terms of engineering and power-supplying facilities. ‘The overarching idea behind the project is creating a residential area with good quality, comfortable living space that could include the River Patrushikha and some forests; it is going to be a city