Sverdlovsk Region industrial production index grew by 21.6% in April 2007 compared to a year earlier and by 13.8% in January-April 2007 against four months of 2006. The most impressive growth rates were reported with machine-building and equipment making (58.6%), production of perfumes and cosmetics (43.9%), plastic goods (25.25%), radio and television equipment (24.3%), furniture (22.3%), plywood and wood panel production (22.6%), fish and seafood processing (22.3%), and metal goods production (15%). The production of knitwear, animal and vegetable fats, pharmaceuticals, and trucks went down

Customs officers of Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg filed a criminal suit against the offender who was trying to smuggle some U.S. dollars while leaving Russia, Ural Customs Administration reports. A Russian citizen leaving for London never told the officers she had over $13,200 on her, thus violating the current customs and currency regulations. This sum equaled to about 354,800 RUR on the day of the flight; this is classed as the amount of money large enough to take legal action.

238,900 square meters of dwellings were commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in January-April 2007, which exceeds the figures for the four months of 2006 by 30.4%. 159,700 square meters worth of housing can be classed as one-family houses (this is 1.6 times better than a year earlier); this comes to 66.8% of all the dwellings put up in the region within the given period. 35 cities and districts did better in terms of housing construction than a year earlier, with 31 cities improving last year’s construction rates by 20% or more. Verknyaya Pyshma, Berezovskiy, Revda, Pervouralsk, Nizhniy Tagil,

Severnaya Kazna’s e-bank users might have some trouble making their payments as CyberPlat reports it might take longer to transfer the customers’ money into their mobile phone accounts in case they use Beeline, MTS, Utel, or TELE2. This is why all those making mobile phone payments through Severnaya Kazna’s ATMs, e-portals, or text messages might have to wait a bit before the money is actually transferred to their accounts. The bank has already experienced a number of problems with its Internet-Bank and Client-Bank systems before; for instance, the services were not available from 9 AM to 4

According to Deputy Minister for Construction and Housing Maintenance and Utilities of Sverdlovsk Region Bogdan Protsyk, last year’s heating season was quite smooth. There were only a few serious and costly breakdowns in Verkhnyaya Salda and Nizhnyaya Salda that the ministry believes had been caused by depreciation of equipment and maintenance facilities, insufficient funding of housing repairs by the local budget, and huge electricity, heating, and fuel bills. 9 billion RUR were invested in housing maintenance and utilities in 2006, with another 1.8 billion contributed by the regional

RENOVA Stroy Group presented its Academic construction project (the breadboard model of the future city district) at the 12th Russian Economic Forum held in Yekaterinburg on May 18-19, 2007. 'This is Europe and Russia’s largest multi-faceted area development project to date. ‘Our stand enjoyed great popularity at the forum, with several hundred people checking it out within two days (Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel, Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Sergey Naryshkin, Deputy Russian Federation Minister of Transport Alexander Misharin, President of the International

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of profit-making NGOs’ deposits in Uralfinprombank valid for 181 days to 1 year went down 100% (from 1.5 million RUR to zero) in January-April 2007.

The Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs reports two swindlers accused of stealing money from people’s bank accounts using the cardholders’ personal data were detained in Yekaterinburg. The offenders are reported to have been operating in both Russia and Europe. ‘These Bulgarian citizens, believed to be members of an international group, arrived in Yekaterinburg early this May; the consul of Bulgaria has already been notified,’ the Ministry’s press officer says. The inquiry officers are inclined to think the perpetrators tried to illegally install special devices onto the local

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of investments placed by nongovernmental financial institutions with METCOMBANK for 1 to 3 years went down 100% (from 58 million RUR to zero) in January-April 2007.

The regional law-enforcement bodies stopped the operation of a large clandestine manufacturing facility in Yekaterinburg. It turned out that the premises of one of the city’s military units had been used for the production and packaging of adulterated foods, including Nestle cocoa powder, thus exploiting the popularity of the brand on the consumer market to the fraudsters’ own benefit. The damage done to the Swiss company is estimated at 18 million RUR. The offenders will have to go through a criminal trial.

Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) imposed a temporary ban on certain types of Euvax B vaccine aimed at prevention of hepatitis B and produced by LG Life Sciences (the Republic of Korea). The World Health Organization Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals reports grave negative side effects (including even some lethal outcomes) have been experienced by children in Vietnam. After it completes investigation of these side reactions, the World Health Organization intends to issue recommendations on the use of and reports on quality and safety of the vaccine.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by GRAN Bank to profit-making NGOs for 181 days to 1 year went down 8.5% (from 369.44 million RUR to 337.965 million RUR) in January-April 2007.

IES Multiutilities loses up to 100 million RUR a year due to unauthorized network use, the company’s press officer reports. Their experts say that electricity is most commonly stolen by people putting up cottages in the countryside.

Director of Wings travel club Natalia Oborina said at a press conference last Friday that the number of Yekaterinburg-based travel agents was going down. 'Changes made to the law on travel services will result in most tours being ordered from the agents operating in Moscow. This could be good for tourists, as our Moscow-based counterparts are normally on less limited budgets, they have to compete much more fiercely and therefore are not likely to raise the prices dramatically. One bad thing about the new regulations is that Moscow travel agents usually service mass travel destinations,

According to the Central Bank of Russia, the volume of loans given by GRAN Bank to profit-making NGOs for 181 days to 1 year went down 7.97% (from 369.44 million RUR to 339.997 million RUR) in January-March 2007. Besides, it was decided at the BOD meeting that the Board would suggest that the shareholders agree to the bank’s merger with Investbank and elaborate the details related to changes in the merger agreement and reorganization issues in the course of the annual general meeting.

Yekaterinburg’s leading travel agents announced at a press conference on May 18, 2005 that Turkey and Egypt were going to remain the most popular foreign destinations throughout the new tourist season. They also said they were getting more and more tourists wishing to spend a holiday abroad; for instance, the influx of travelers going to Italy, Spain, Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, and Cyprus doubled last year against 2005.

Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development was promoted from Russia’s 62nd to Russia’s 60th largest bank (in terms of assets) within Interfax-100’s ranking list. There were eight banks operating in Ural Federal District on this list altogether. ‘The bank’s assets rose by 7.3% in January-March 2007 and reached the point of 28,249.1 million RUR; this stable success proves that the bank is both quite dependable and keeps developing impressively,’ the bank’s press officer reports.

‘Our stock market kept going down last week because of inflation risks and growth of global interest rates, which made most of the world’s markets less attractive in terms of investments,’ says SKB-Bank’s trader Alexander Sterkhov. ‘RTS index reached 1,844.7 points at the close of business on May 17, 2007, which is 2.5% lower than at the beginning of the week. According to the Minister of Finances Alexei Kudrin, after VTB went through with the IPO, the government’s share in the bank’s stock amounted to 78%. It was also announced that 35% of shares had been offered on Russian markets and 65%

Regional law-enforcement agencies disclosed more gerrymandering behind the insolvency of Bogdanovich Porcelain Works while investigating the fraud-related case of the plant’s financial director. CEOs of two Yekaterinburg-based firms, for example, were found to have bribed the person responsible for property assessment in order to have fictitious assessment reports drawn up for them. Later on, this made it possible for the plant’s financial director to buy tons of scrap metal in the guise of top-of-the-range equipment (the damage done to the company was estimated at 23 million RUR).

The proceeds of Vysokogorskiy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise (part of Evraz Group) increased by 79.6% in the first quarter of 2007 compared to January-March 2006, amounting to 1,676 million RUR. This is 13% better than in the last quarter of 2006, the spokesperson for Evraz group says. The company’s net profit came to 366 million RUR, which is 25.8% better than in October-December 2006, its gross profit came to 708 million RUR, which is 204.6% better than a year earlier. Sales revenues went up by 502.1% compared to a year earlier, reaching 597 million RUR.