September 30, 2014. Yekaterinburg is going to host the European table tennis championship in 2015: the city’s application was recently approved by the European Table Tennis Union’s congress. ‘This decision is the result of our ongoing efforts aimed at the development of table tennis in Sverdlovsk Region, this is the result of local tennis players’ achievement, and the result of Sverdlovsk Region’s international acclaim,’ says Sverdlovsk Region Minister for Physical Education, Sports, & Youth Policy Leonid Rapoport. The European table tennis championship is to take place on September

September 30, 2014. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development is organizing a special Business Knowledge Day as a way of celebrating the company’s anniversary. The event is open for all sorts of businesspeople who enjoy learning something new and useful, the bank’s press service reports. Seminars, workshops, and advice sessions will be dedicated to various aspects of running a business. The event will take place at the UBRD Business Management Center (12 Anton Valek St) in Yekaterinburg from 10 AM to 7 PM on September 30. During this session, participants will be able to get

September 30, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation is going to act as the general sponsor of the first national hi tech industry blue-collar jobs contest WorldSkills Hi Tech; the championship will be held on the premises of Yekaterinburg EXPO on October 30-November 3. According to the corporation’s press service, the agreement on the organization of the championship was signed during Innoprom 2014, the international industrial exhibition, by Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeniy Kuivashev, Russian Industry

September 30, 2014. Sinara Group is now in the 96th place in the Forbes rating of Russia’s largest privately owned companies, the company’s PR Center reports. The magazine’s analysts ranked Russia’s non-state economic sector and created a rating of 200 companies with less than 50% of state-owned or internationally owned authorized capital. A company’s position in the rating is based on its revenues in 2013. Forbes analysts say that the list of businesses has remained virtually the same as last year: only 16 companies had to give room to stronger competitors. ‘The rating of non-listed

September 30, 2014. MegaFon came up with a five-year performance report for its retail network in Ural Federal District. A noticeable increase in smartphone sales proves the most prominent trend at the moment: customers started buying these twice as often over the last year alone, while number of smartphones sold rose by 20 times over the last five years, the company’s press service reports. ‘Given our customers’ needs, we expanded the range of mobile phones available for purchase by five times. You can currently find more than 213 smartphone makes, 107 phone varieties, and 39 kinds of tablet

September 30, 2014. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK), ChTPZ Group, and Kazakhstan’s KazTransOil signed a memorandum on scientific and technological cooperation at the 11th Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum in Atyrau, Kazakhstan, today. The memorandum was signed by MMK Director-General Pavel Shilyayev, ChTPZ Group DG Vitaly Sadykov, and KazTransOil DG/Chairman of the Board Kairgeldy Kabyldin. The parties agreed to exchange technical information and conduct meetings on a regular basis in order to improve their pipe produce. The document also specifically focuses on the

September 29, 2014. Ural Electrochemical Plant (a member enterprise of Rosatom’s Fuel Company TVEL, Novouralsk) is going to invest more than 7bn RUR in equipment upgrades in 2014, the plant’s press service refers to the company Director-General Alexander Belousov as saying. According to the DG, the company is starting to modernize one of its gas centrifuge units at one of its technological departments today; the plant also keeps working on the replacement of ancillary equipment. The company operates stably and can definitely meet its production targets. For one, the plant’s sales revenues

September 29, 2014. A new production facility is expected to be put up on the premises of Uralcryomash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) in Nizhniy Tagil in 2015-2017 According to the corporation’s press service, the facility is meant for making 3,500 product units, including tank cars, liquefied petroleum gas and liquefied natural gas containers, and stationary cryogenic tanks. The production facility will be put up on the premises of the former Nizhniy Tagil Concrete Goods Plant 3. The new facility’s area will come to around 50,000 sq m, with about 400 new jobs for workers

September 29, 2014. The opening of the famous coffee chain Starbucks’ first branch in Greenwich Shopping Mall caused a lot of craze and excitement in Yekaterinburg. There was a tremendous line next to the outlet that actually reached all the way out to the shopping mall entrance. As a matter of fact, the official opening ceremony will only take place tomorrow. This weekend, Starbucks came up with a special offer of treating its first thousand customers to a free cup of coffee. To get your coffee FOC, you need to enter the Yekaterinburg outlet’s website and provide an email address that a

September 29, 2014. The FIFA executive committee supported the idea of allowing Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad construct or reconstruct stadiums that would be big enough for 35,000 supporters in time for the World Cup 2018, R-Sport refers to Russian Sports Minister Vitaliy Mutko as saying. ‘The executive committee agreed that two cities, namely, Kaliningrad and Yekaterinburg, adopted a different concept in terms of the stadium capacity. It was agreed today that they would be allowed to construct or reconstruct stadiums fit for 35,000 people,’ Mutko said. The world football championship will be

September 29, 2014. This year, four new refrigerator hangars will be commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region, and new refrigerating equipment will also be launched at four agricultural enterprises, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policy Department reports. ‘Storing locally produced vegetables through the start of next year’s yield will allow us to avoid potato and vegetable shortage, not to depend on suppliers from other locations, and, most importantly, to control food prices. Vegetable cellars fit for 8,000,000 kg of foods were commissioned last year, and this year, there appeared

September 26, 2014. Svetlana Moshkovitch from Armada Paralympics Club (sponsored by Uralvagonzavod Corporation) won the first prize in the 13-km individual race in the European Handcycling Cup in Italy. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports Svetlana also won the silver medal in the group race on September 20 and was awarded the third prize in the European Cup final overall. ‘Svetlana Moshkevitch performed outstandingly this season, and we hope to see some new achievements next year,’ says the Russian national team’s coach Alexei Chunosov.

September 26, 2014. Electromachine Scientific & Production Association (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) coordinated the Best Workplace Contest within the framework of its lean manufacturing introduction program. Workers from the company’s mechanical, galvanizing, and pre-production department competed for the Best Workplace Based on 5S prize, the corporation’s press service reports. The company started introducing the principles of lean manufacturing in July 2014; this is also when practical 5S workshops began to educate the staff about the organization and improvement

September 26, 2014. ChTPZ Group’s experts took part in Industry World/WIN Russia Ural, an international forum for mining, metallurgical, metal treatment, and machine-building technologies, ChTPZ Group’s press service reports. The forum covered a sectional meeting on training cadre for the mining/metallurgical and machine-building sectors and on the challenges, problems, experience, and solutions in the area. The meeting was attended by Sverdlovsk Region Deputy Minister for General & Vocational Education Alexei Pakhomov, Executive Vice President of Sverdlovsk Region Union of Industrialists

September 26, 2014. An agreement on trade, economic, scientific, technological, and cultural cooperation will be signed by Sverdlovsk Region and the federal state of Styria, Austria, the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Department reports. ‘The agreement, that is currently being worked on by both parties, will lay a solid foundation for the cooperation between Sverdlovsk Region and one of Austria’s most economically developed federal states and will become a basis for long-term investment. Choosing Styria as a business partner was no coincidence: this Austrian state has an economic

September 26, 2014. As of September 24, 2014, 134 displaced persons from Ukraine were granted Russian citizenship in Sverdlovsk Region, head of Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Tax Service’s Refugee & Displaced Persons Naturalization Department Alyona Tretyakova says. ‘That Sverdlovsk Region is an appealing area for immigrants is hardly a secret fact. 6,500 Ukrainian natives have currently registered with the local immigration authorities, including 4,393 people who asked for an asylum,’ Tretyakova said.

September 25, 2014. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s head plant made 36.1bn RUR worth of goods in the first half of 2014, the corporation’s press service reports. 10, 681 units of rolling stock were made, including 8,226 gondola cars, 2,330 tank cars, 106 lumber carriers, and 19 dumping cars. 37.7bn RUR worth of goods were shipped to customers. This year, Uralvagonzavod kept working on its department technical upgrades program. In the first half of 2014, the plant received and commissioned 238 units of technological equipment, which resulted in 142.6m RUR in savings. During this period, 115

September 25, 2014. The trade union of Kamensk-Uralsky Foundry Plant (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) collected a third batch of humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees currently located in Kamensk-Uralsky; the aid was handed over to the Red Cross representatives. These are winter clothing, bedding, diapers, and personal hygiene items, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘There are currently some 200 displaced persons from Ukraine living in Kamensk-Uralsky. Most of them have already found jobs, some of them pay their rent themselves. However, there are things they need

September 25, 2014. Ural Locomotives (a joint venture operated by Sinara Group and Siemens AG) is working on a more comfortable version of high-speed electric train Lastochka, RZhD Partner refers to CEO of Siemens Russia Dietrich Moeller as saying. Mr. Moeller explained that most of the changes will have to do with seats and electronic equipment. ‘We operate in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, where we have a special Engineering & Design Department, and this is where the new solution for Russia is being elaborated,’ he said. The CEO noted the first 48 trains were delivered from Germany specially for

September 25, 2014. Sverdlovsk Region was among the top ten Russian Federation constituencies in terms of air travel intensity, the Tour Operators Association’s website states. Moscow was No.1 in the rating. On average, people living in the capital book flights 4.5 times more often than travelers from other parts of the country. Muscovites prefer to fly economy class, with tickets under 30,000 RUR. In addition to Sverdlovsk Region, Saint Petersburg, Krasnodar Territory, Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region, Murmansk Region, and Novosibirsk Region were also among the top ten. People appear to