‘The fact that its rating has been confirmed by the agency enhances Sverdlovsk Region’s investor appeal and expands the number of the potential investors and creditors who might be interested in coming to do business here. The rating also opens up a wider access to borrowed funds and other sources of capital. This, in its turn, promotes further economic growth,’ Sverdlovsk Region’s Economics Ministry says regarding the recent change to ‘Positive’ in the region’s rating outlook. Standard & Poor's also confirmed Sverdlovsk Region’s BB long-term credit rating, with Positive, rather than

A number of apparently counterfeit goods were found by Nizhniy Tagil Customs officers in one of the local stores, Ural Customs Administration’s press service reports. The owner of the goods in question was unable to produce any documentary proof of the products being genuine, so their sale is believed to violate the trademark owner’s rights. The sports clothing and footwear bearing Adidas and Nike logos, worth a total of 28,500 RUR, had to be confiscated, with product samples directed to expert examination. All in all, about 1,200 counterfeit items have been confiscated from the stores

Head of Russian Government Vladimir Putin signed an order on converting Rosnano State Corporation into an open joint stock company, the corporation’s press officer reports. The decision was taken to fulfill Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s resolution that all of Russia’s state-run corporations should be reorganized.

The decision to set up Titanium Valley in Verkhnyaya Salda, Sverdlovsk Region, is key to the region’s development for decades to come, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Alexander Misharin says. ‘This special economic zone will offer businesspeople tax relief schemes and a special customs regime, which means everything will be organized so as to promote the breakthrough development of the enterprises based there. All this will push our innovational projects even further,’ the Governor observes. Alexander Misharin explains that at the moment, there are six companies willing to sign an agreement

Innogarant, an insurance company will provide only a partial reimbursement of Capital Tour’s customers’ expenses; what’s more, this compensation will not be paid any sooner than March 2011, TourBusiness portal reports. According to the insurer’s PR Director Alexander Kremer, 1,020 sets of insurance payments applications had been accepted by the company from the tour operator’s customers by December 17, that is, a month after Capital Tours closed down. Kremer says the Capital Tour’s case is yet unique to the Russian insurance market as it beats all the previous incidents in terms of the number

OAO Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) applied Ford Motor Company’s standards to its zinc-coated rolled products. These standards determine the requirements that the automobile industry products supplied to Ford have to meet. The standards cover such products as hollow-resistant steel sheets and hot-dip galvanized rolled products made of low-alloy steel with high and super-high formability. MMK is now coordinating the first shipments of metal goods that meet Ford Motor Company’s standards. MMK sees the production of automobile body sheets that meet the existing global standards as one