Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel met a delegation of officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo on July 7, 2008. Congo’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Russia and Senator Leonard She Okitundu were among the delegation members. The Congolese officials arrived in Yekaterinburg in order to set up Congo’s Honorary Consulate in the city. In the course of the meeting, Governor Eduard Rossel said Sverdlovsk Region had a well-developed industrial infrastructure and could therefore make excellent use of raw materials Congo is rich in.

‘We keep on developing our mortgage lending sector and have recently reviewed our products’ standards in terms of risks and borrower requirements. URSA Bank decreased the cost of its mortgages by 2% in June 2008, so now if you take a mortgage for three to thirty years and make a 10% down payment, the average annual interest rate will amount to 15%. One can apply for anything between 100,000 RUR and 15 million RUR,’ URSA Bank’s Ural branch’s Vice President Alexei Sannikov says. ‘We managed to make the interest rate go down due to the loan financing becoming less expensive; for one, we borrowed

Workers of Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant’s OCTG shop are currently busy upgrading their Bracker hydraulic press meant for testing pipes under pressure. This upgrading project is part of the company’s investment program for 2008, for which 27.8 million RUR have been provided, the spokesperson for ChTPZ Group (which Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant is a member of) reported to UrBC. The upgrading project is to be implemented in two stages. First, a new hydraulic power station will be installed and launched, and then the high-pressure units will be replaced in order to avoid any hydraulic impact during

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank Uralfinance to Russian subjects’ financial bodies and local governments for 91 to 180 days went down by 41.76% (from 5 million RUR to 2.912 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 33.22% (from 92.8 million RUR to 61.965 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development-Finance made 25.55 million RUR worth of coupon payments on the second bond issue’s eighth coupon. 25.55 RUR was paid for every bond with face value of 1,000 RUR. Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development-Finance is the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s full daughter enterprise. The company is going to launch an offer on its bonds after the eighth coupon yield is paid on July 10, 2008. The bonds are to be retired on July 2, 2009. According to the issuer’s decision, the interest rate for the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth coupon

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin directed some additional 350 million RUR from the region’s budget to the development of transport infrastructure in Chelyabinsk, the spokesperson for the mayor reports. Like all the other municipalities, Chelyabinsk Region gets some regional budget’s subsidies for road construction. 1.58 billion RUR got invested in the city’s roads last year. This year, Chelyabinsk has received 700 million RUR to improve its roads this year. The money will be spent on the construction of a two-level junction at Cherkasskaya St., overhauls of Barbus St., Khokhryakov

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralFinPromBank to for-profit self-regulatory organizations for 31 to 90 days went down by 33.22% (from 92.8 million RUR to 61.965 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

‘According to the city’s General Development plan, we need to stop putting more buildings within the city. We do put up a lot of unique buildings thanks to frequent use of foreign architects with global recognition,’ head of the city’s chief architecture and urban development authority Mikhail Vyatkin announced in the course of a report made on Yekaterinburg ‘s General Development plan. The plan, valid through the year 2025, was adopted on July 6, 2004 and presented to Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel on July 4, 2008. The Governor spoke about the need to have more housing and

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) carried out a number of inspections of companies dealing in gross sales of toys. The inspections revealed that some companies offered for sale toy bird incubators and birds whose toluene contents exceeded the maximum permissible level by five times: the toluene content came to 3.03 milligrams per cubic meter instead of the maximum permissible level of .6 milligrams per cubic meter. The toys were manufactured by Vita Production Limited, the Chinese toy-maker, the spokesperson for Rospotrebnadzor in

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to sole traders for 181 days to 1 year dropped by 15.12% (from 32.826 million RUR to 27.86 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

Ural Chemical Machine-Building Plant’s AGM resulted in the decision to pass a dividend for 2007. In the course of the meeting, the stockholders also elected the new Board of Directors consisting, among other members, of Valeriy Antoniadi, Sergey Baburin, and Malik Gaysin.

‘Yekaterinburg ‘s General Development plan was adopted in 2004, and now we are to start implementing it,’ head of the city’s chief architecture and urban development authority Mikhail Vyatkin announced in the course of a report made on Yekaterinburg ‘s General Development plan. The plan, valid through the year 2025, was adopted on July 6, 2004 and presented to Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel on July 4, 2008. The presentation touched upon the city’s key development directions (that is, socioeconomic, environmental, and spatial ones) and issues related to public and private

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Bank Uralfinance to Russian subjects’ financial bodies and local governments for 91 to 180 days went down by 41.76% (from 5 million RUR to 2.912 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

The Banker magazine (part of Financial Times group) came up with a new rating of the World’s Top 1,000 banks. The Banker reports URSA Bank was the world’s 487th largest bank in terms of tier one capital in 2007, which was 345 positions better than in 2006. URSA Bank was first featured in the magazine’s rating in 2007 with the 832nd position in terms of tier one capital for 2006. Over the year 2007, the bank’s dramatic growth secured it a place among the world’s Top 10 banks in terms of rating promotion. In addition, URSA Bank was given the 15th position in terms of assets among all Russian

Three years ago, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development developed and launched a special program of lending to small and medium enterprises, designed to fit the peculiarities of startup and growing companies and adjusted to various business sectors. Over these three years, the program evolved into a wide range of profitable product solutions with a flexible startups financing mechanism, available in every region where the bank operates. So far, 7,000 applications and loan contracts worth a total of 2.2 billion RUR have been made, which means the bank’s lending schemes enjoy good

‘The increase in jet fuel prices can’t help affecting the cost of holiday travel. The latest rise introduced by Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg made the average price of a tour go up 20% on average due to the fuel fee becoming more costly. The fuel fee for Europe-bound trips now comes to ?120 to ?140 per person on average, the fee for flights to Turkey has gone up from ?20 to ?140 since April 2008,’ Geografia Travel Agency’s Tourism Director Elena Shubina says. ‘This soaring fuel price has naturally made an impact on travelers’ priorities. They are now choosing destinations which are

‘As far as I know 150 people from Chelyabinsk and 15 people from Sverdlovsk Region (Russkiye Kanikuly’s customers) could not get to Turkey due to Vasco de Tour’s recent bankruptcy,’ President of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information and Tourism Center Vadim Viner said to UrBC. Vasco de Tour, a Turkish tour operator, was reported to have gone bust last Friday. As a result, some 500 Russians (including 120 travelers from Chelyabinsk) could not check in their hotels since the company did not pay for the reservations. Some people from Yekaterinburg were among the unfortunate holidaymakers as well. ‘We

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Pervouralsk Joint Stock Commercial Bank to state-run for-profit organizations for 1 to 3 years went down by 48.95% (from 4.8 million RUR to 2.45 million RUR) in January-May 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Tagilbank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days dropped by 89.92% (from 11.94 million RUR to 1.215 million RUR) in January-May 2008.