A meeting of the House of Representatives’ deputies, chaired by Lyudmila Babushkina, took place on Uralmashzavod’s premises. The meeting’s agenda was devoted to the dramatic increase in land fees and to measures aimed at fighting and preventing unemployment in Sverdlovsk Region, the region’s Legislative Assembly press officer reports.

Prior to the meeting, the deputies visited the plant’s machine-assembly department and the steel-smelting shop. The tour was guided by Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation’s GD Nazim Efendiev. The executive said the outbreak of the financial crisis was keenly felt by the plant as soon as the global metal prices dropped. Their orders portfolio was nearly empty at the moment, with some of the customers even backing out of their contracts.