Issues related to improvements in the field of housing bill payment system were discussed at a recent meeting of Sverdlovsk Region Government chaired by acting Governor Anatoly Gredin. To ensure the further development of the system, a proposal to rely more heavily on the international payment systems Visa and MasterCard was made.

The special economic zone Titanium Valley was presented in Rome at the 1st international innovations forum called Italy-Russia. Sverdlovsk Region’s Investment & Development Ministry reports that scientists from the University of Rome and representatives of direct investment funds, financial organizations, and export agencies have all taken an interest in the project. They were informed about the potential of this Verkhyaya Salda-based special economic zone as a basis for cooperation between the Russian and the Italian companies. The next day, the project was presented in the course of a

Standard&Poor’s credit rating service reconsidered the ratings of fourteen Russian banks. Under the new methodology, the long- and short-term ratings of the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development were raised from B-/C to B/B; the bank’s national scale rating was also promoted from ruBBB+ to ruA-, with Stable rating outlook, the agency reports. ‘While upgrading the methodology, we also tried to take into account the results of our monitoring the banks’ activity in unfavorable banking market and economic conditions brought about by the recession of 2007-2009 and the issue of Europe’s

The Russian carrier MegaFon is now reducing the basic roaming rates for Egypt and Israel, including Palestine. The cost of both incoming calls and outgoing calls to Russia and around the host country is now 33 RUR per minute. The price of data transfer and text messaging has gone down as well, MegaFon’s press service reports. In fact, MegaFon already launched a dramatic rate drop on December 15 on the basic roaming rates for forty-four European countries, including the European part of the CIS and Turkey. The carrier introduced a single Eurorate for all the Russian subscribers to any rate

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court accepted for processing the application submitted by Heavy Duty Gear-Cutting Machines; the company wants Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation to be declared bankrupt, a court representative told Russian Agency for Legal & Court Information (RAPSI). The date for considering the application has not been set yet. Heavy Duty Gear-Cutting Machines deals in the production of a full set of machinery (gear-cutting, gear-broaching, gear-grinding, gear-lapping, controlled rolling, and hardening machines) needed to manufacture angular and hypoid