‘We haven’t been informed about the possible closing down of Mega Trade Center in Yekaterinburg,’ Nadezhda Kiseleva, the spokesperson for M.Video, the consumer electronics retail chain, said to UrBC representative. ‘We do know that Mega conducted all the examinations of compliance with the fire safety requirements; we are also aware of the fact that not all of the requirements were actually met. Yet Mega is a large international company that has a lot of market experience, so we hope it will be able to work things out in the nearest future,’ Ms Kiseleva said. The State Fire Surveillance

‘Such cost-cutting practices as lean production, kaizen, or ISO management do not work effectively in isolation. This is why no company using the system can implement it in its full format,’ Evgeniy Shchepetov, Deputy Business Process Re-engineering Director of Kamensk Uralskiy Metallurgical Plant, said to UrBC representative. ‘One often hears of companies who have successfully used Toyota’s strategies in Russia. I personally think this isn’t feasible, as this car maker’s experience is unique. If a business wants to cut its production costs, it is better off trying to come up with its own way

‘UralTransBank placed its comments on the independent examination conducted by FBK Company Ltd. at the request of ROSNO, the insurance company, with the Federal Insurance Surveillance Agency and the Association of Regional Russian Banks,’ the bank’s Deputy Chairman Andrei Spitsin said to UrBC representative. Many experts believe that this can be seen as the retaliation for the subjective (as UralTransBank thinks) report of the independent examination committee organized by the insurer. After the meeting of the Federal Insurance Surveillance Agency executives devoted to the clash between ROSNO

The Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service decided to give the general approval to the merger of RUSAL, SUAL Holding, and Glencore. SUAL Group creditors have officially confirmed their agreement to the changes in the company’s shareholder structure. RUSAL shareholders, for instance, will own 66% of the new company, SUAL Holding shareholders will get a 22% share of the assets, Glencore shareholders are to own 12% of the company’s shares. The merger is going to raise the net debt and change the debtors’ financial ratios for a while, which has also been agreed upon by the creditors.

A court examination of two insurers using similar names is going to take place in Yekaterinburg on January 24, 2007. Belaya Bashnya Insurance Broker Ltd. sued Belaya Bashnya Zdorovie Insurance Company demanding that the defendant change their name and pay a 5m RUR fine. The general director of Belaya Bashnya Zdorovie Boris Vologzheninov tends to see the actions of the plaintiff as an attempt of redistributing the regional obligatory medical insurance market.

SUAL Holding representatives visited a boarding school and an orphanage in Krasnoturinsk on January 16, 2007 within the framework of their charity campaign devoted to the company’s tenth anniversary. The campaign actually started last year when the company set up two new playgrounds in the town. A company car delivered a TV set, a DVD player, some tape recorders, computers and electronic appliances as well as some board games and sweets to the school and hygienic items, toys and New Year gifts to the orphanage. The campaign also covered giving presents to schoolchildren and orphans in

SibAcademBank and Uralvneshtorgbank merged to become URSA Bank in 2006 in order to create a bank with an increased geographical spread and client database. The new bank is going to develop further by keeping up with the traditions and trends of its predecessors such as informational transparency, exceptional client-friendliness, and use of advanced technologies. The bank’s balance sheet total reached the point of 138.1bn RUR on January 1, 2007, which is 4.3 times better than that of SibAcademBank a year earlier. Its net wealth (assessed with the help of Interfax method) increased by 3.7 times

‘Such cost-cutting practices as lean production, kaizen, or ISO management do not work effectively in isolation. This is why no company using the system can implement it in its full format,’ Evgeniy Shchepetov, Deputy Business Process Re-engineering Director of Kamensk Uralskiy Metallurgical Plant, said to UrBC representative. ‘One often hears of companies who have successfully used Toyota’s strategies in Russia. I personally think this isn’t feasible, as this car maker’s experience is unique. If a business wants to cut its production costs, it is better off trying to come up with its own way

According to the spokesperson of the Federal Insurance Surveillance Agency, one more meeting devoted to the independent examination of damage done to UralTransBank conducted by FBK Company Ltd. (an auditing and consulting firm) at the request of ROSNO, the insurance company, will be held tomorrow. The meeting is expected to be attended by the representatives of the Association of Regional Russian Banks, Russian Union of Car Insurers, ROSNO, UralTransBank, and some executives of the Federal Insurance Surveillance Agency. The dispute originally started with both parties accusing each other of

Evraz Holding Ltd., the sponsor and organizer of a charitable program known as City of Friends – City of Children, provided Meridian (a student technical development club) with a 250,000 RUR grant to buy all the equipment needed to set up a children’s TV program. The television facilities include a video camera, microphones, and a nonlinear editing device, all ordered and delivered from Moscow. Meridian-based children’s information agency is planning to start working on the pilot program in the nearest future. The program is expected to appear on Channel 10 in Novokuznetsk. Every monthly

Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy Chernetskiy signed a strategic project referred to as Clean Air. The project aims to reduce vehicular pollution as well as cut down on emissions coming from stationary points. The number of vehicles used in Yekaterinburg has doubled over the last 10 years (from 167,000 cars in 1995 to 441,000 in 2005), and experts predict that these figures will rise by another 35% to 50% by 2015. To make matters worse, many Yekaterinburg-based enterprises use obsolete technologies and worn-out equipment, which is why emissions are often released in the air when they are

The official website of the Embassy of Sweden in Russia says that some changes have been made to the visa issuance procedures since the beginning of the year, namely, the increased price of the visa. It has become 100 RUR more expensive and now costs 1,200 RUR, to be paid by the travel agents in Russian currency only. Tourists from other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (including Byelorussia) will have to pay 2,000 RUR, reports Ural Tourist Server.

Sergey Vetyshev of SKB-Bank is positive that the continuing decrease in the U.S. dollar exchange rate is inevitable. ‘The dollar has been going down for two days now. The Bank of Russia set the exchange rate at 26.55 RUR per dollar today (which means it is now .001 RUR cheaper). The euro exchange rate was set at 34.38 RUR per euro, which is .007 RUR greater than yesterday,’ Mr Vetyshev says. ‘The dollar reached its local maximum on Friday, January 12, 2007 when its rate came to 1.2864 per euro on the global market and to 26.58 RUR in Russia. The dollar was supported by the data on the U.S.

‘A lot of gambling house owners are trying to sell their business before July 1, 2007, while the prices are still more favourable for the sellers,’ President of Ural Gambling Industry Development Association Alexei Galaguzov said relating to the federal law on the state regulation of the gambling industry that has recently come into effect. Mr Galaguzov confirmed that the gambling houses would only operate until July 1, 2007. The only companies that will be permitted to go on with their business after this date will be the ones with at least 600m RUR worth of assets, 50 machines, and the area

Koltsovo Airport assessed its activity in 2006. Its passenger traffic amounted to 1,764,948 people, including 1,128,489 passengers who used domestic flights, 488,954 people who used international flights, and 147,505 passengers who travelled to the countries of the CIS. The figure reached the point of 1.5 million people as early as the beginning of November. The airport serviced 13,289 take-offs in 2006, with 10,013 planes going to different Russian cities, 2,349 aircrafts going abroad, and 927 airplanes flying to the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Koltsovo Airport

‘The wage arrears in Sverdlovsk Region came to 30 million RUR on January 1, 2007; however, the figure reached the point of 152 million on December 1, 2006. The debt was reduced due the joint efforts of the public prosecution authorities, local government, and Sverdlovsk Region Labour inspectorate,’ Deputy State Inspector for Legal Issues of Sverdlovsk Region division of Labour inspectorate Maxim Vedernikov announced at the press conference. Last year’s inspections revealed that 533 regional enterprises failed to pay the salaries on time to 23,336 employees. As a result, 858 orders to

Euromonitor, the British researcher, summed up the results of the Russian strong drinks market activity in 2006. The wine and vodka sales went down 7.5% (down to 102.5 million decalitres) and 3.9% (down to 175.6 million decalitres), respectively, yet in terms of money the sales grew by 2.2% (up to $7.4 billion) and 11.2% (up to 11.3 billion), respectively. In the meantime, the beer and low-alcohol drinks sales rose by 10.4% (up to 968 million decalitres) and 17% (up to 54.7 million decalitres) (in terms of volume), respectively, and by 22% (up to $16.4 billion) and 33% (up to $1.8 billion)

The international round table discussion devoted to the international experience of state support of educational loans is going to take place in Moscow on January 29, 2007 The event is coordinated by the State Duma Bank and Financial Market Committee and supported by the Association of Regional Russian Banks, KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW development bank), and Berlin Economic Society. Among the speakers invited to take part in the discussion are the State Duma deputies, members of the Soviet of the Federation, bank directors and leaders of bank unions, and some international experts. The

‘We looked at over 3,500 complaints regarding unscrupulous employers in 2006, which exceeds the figures for a year earlier by 20%,’ Deputy State Inspector for Legal Issues of Sverdlovsk Region division of Labour inspectorate Maxim Vedernikov announced at the press conference. According to Mr Vedernikov, most offences have to do with the violations of working conditions regulations (work/rest distribution), arrears of wages or not paying them at all. ‘As a rule, very few employees dare file a complaint since they have to find the evidence themselves,’ Mr Vedernikov noted.

SKB-Bank gave its clients 1,667 mortgage loans in 2006. This is twice the number of loans given in 2005; the figure also exceeds the total number of mortgages provided since the very beginning of the bank’s mortgage lending program (1,569 loans were provided in 2003-2005). The participatory construction lending (loans to cover the price of an apartment in a house under construction) has been developing even faster. The bank issued 189 such loans in 2006, which exceeds the figures for 2005 by 4.5 times and comes to twice the number of all loans issued throughout the whole existence of the