The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Sverdlovsk Region signed a memorandum of understanding in the course of the 14th Russian Economic Forum in Yekaterinburg. The document was signed by Governor Eduard Rossel and Director Klaus Rohland, the IBRD’s permanent representative in Russia. The memorandum gives the region an opportunity to employ the World Bank’s experience in the field of economic research to improve and develop the area as well as to perfect its fund-raising mechanisms, the spokesperson for the Governor reports. Governor Eduard Rossel says the IBRD is going

Ural Railway Machine-Building Plant’s Board of Directors decided to appoint the CEO and First Deputy GD of Pnevmostroymachina Dmitriy Yakshin the company’s General Director on May 15, 2009. Incidentally, the enterprise’s former GD Anatoly Sabelnikov only came into office in July 2008, succeeding Alexander Saltaev, who was appointed in May 2007. This means that the plant’s BOD has elected the new General Director for the third time over the last two years.

SOT and Magnitogorsk-based MZMZ (members of Rimera O&G maintenance company) have been successfully re-certified by QS Azia Sertik (based in Almaty, Kazakhstan) and thus proved the compliance of their quality management system and of their produce with the ST RK ISO 9001-2001 standards. The ST RK ISO 9001-2001 standard is the state standard of the Republic of Kazakhstan and an adjusted version of the international ISO 9001:2000 one. Getting the compliance certificate is obligatory for all the enterprises willing to supply their produce to the Republic of Kazakhstan. ‘These companies

Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court is going to keep looking into the claim laid by the bank’s minority shareholder (2.07% of shares) Oksana Shishkina against Bank Severnaya Kazna and Alfa-Bank in June 2009. The plaintiff insists on Alfa-Bank making Bank Severnaya Kazna go through with a public buy-out offer and acquire the shares from the other stockholders. The decision to put off the hearing till June was taken at a session on May 14, 2009. Shishkina believes Alfa-Bank must buy her shareholding (1,276,500 shares) at the highest price offered to the other stockholders. She insists on Bank

The General Director of Express-Garant Alexander Ivanov and Leonid Chetverkin, the GD of Gubernskaya Management Company joined Reserve South Ural Social Development Bank’s Board of Directors. The news has been announced after the annual general meeting held in Yekaterinburg recently. Apart from these two executives, the BOD also consists of the bank’s Counselors to the Chairman Valeria Kanevskaya and Alexander Ustyukhin as well as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board Sergey Kolobov. Alexander Ivanov and Leonid Chetverkin were reported earlier to have bought Reserve South Ural Social

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK)’s coating shop started manufacturing the new hot-dip-galvanised, high-durability flat stock 350 in accordance with GOST 52246-2004; the product’s thickness comes to .7 to 2 mm and its width reaches 1,000 to 1,250 mm. According to MMK’s PR Department, this highly durable product is becoming more and more popular with the builders (who use it to make reliable structural shapes, for example). The main advantage of using this stock lies in the possibility to make the metal less thick while retaining the same durability characteristics. What is more,

The Federal Antimonopoly Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division imposed a 14.44-million-ruble fine on Sverdlovenergosbyt for violating the antimonopoly legislation, the spokesperson for the division reports. The Service completed the investigation of Sverdlovenergosbyt’s case on February 16, 2009, declaring that the company was guilty of violating Article 10 (part 1, paragraph 5) of the Competition Protection Act. The offense consisted in the company avoiding the capturing of the power supply contracts with two local sole traders (E.V. Mazitova and I.V. Romanova). Sverdlovenergosbyt claimed the

Uralsvyazinform (Sverdlovsk Region’s major telecommunications provider) recently came up with a performance report for the first quarter of 2009. According to the company’s official statement, their investments amounted to 288.1 million RUR in January-March 2009 (which falls short of the figures for a year earlier by 62.8%), 57% of which sum was directed to the development of their mobile network and new services; 12.1% of this amount was invested in the development of data communications network and infrastructure, and 10.6% and 7.7% were directed to landline network development and

AKB Probusinessbank’s BOD suggested that the bank’s stockholders vote for passing the registered ordinary share dividend for 2008 at the AGM on June 16, 2009 in Moscow. The Board also placed the issue of closing down the bank’s economic incentive fund on the upcoming meeting’s agenda. Probusinessbank runs Bank24.ru and VUZ-Bank in Sverdlovsk Region.

In order to get the funds necessary to eliminate the wage arrears, eleven buildings owned by Baranchinskiy Electromechanical Plant have been arrested. After this property has been assessed by the experts, the assets are to be sold out and the money used to pay off the enterprise’s debt (the wages first of all), the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region’s division of the Federal Court Officers Service reports. What is more, the company’s assets deposited at the banks and other financial organizations have been limited in that the plant cannot spend any of it at will, so these funds will be used

MRSK Urala Board of Directors decided to terminate the authority of two Supervisory Board members: Alexei Sedykh and Vladimir Kalsin. In addition to this, the BOD scheduled the company AGM for June 19, 2009. The meeting is to be held in Yekaterinburg. The stockholders have been recommended to pass the common stock dividend for 2008.

Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin sent a wire to the leading manager of Russia’s national hockey team Vyacheslav Bykov and invited him to visit his native region. The wire says, ‘All of Chelyabinsk Region rejoiced with you. The local people are proud of the team’s victory as well as of the fact that it happened thanks to your management – the management of someone raised by Chelyabinsk hockey school.’ According to the spokesperson for the Governor, there is going to be a big sports event at the local ice palace upon Bykov’s arrival. The children from all of the region’s hockey school

‘Things are rather hard at VIZ-Stal, Uralmashzavod, Pnevmostroymachina, Concern Kalina, and Yekaterinburg’s other backbone enterprises. The only two companies that managed to raise their shipping output in the first quarter of the year were Uralmashzavod and Ural Civil Aviation Plant, with outputs rising by 29% and 14%, respectively. At the same time, Uralkhimmash, Ural Turbine Plant, and VIZ-Stal’s outputs dropped by 3%, 20%, and 75%, respectively, compared to a year earlier. Pnevmostroymachina is experiencing the greatest difficulties, with output plummeting by 96% compared to the first

‘The country’s cultural heritage (that is, historic buildings) are now being haggled over. These buildings are simply used as a trump card in all sorts of economic games. Paris, for instance, has got about a hundred such buildings, whereas in Sverdlovsk Region, there are 1,200 of them. One can’t help wondering if these buildings are really this important to our culture,’ the owner of Antey Business Center Andrey Gavrilovskiy said at a recent press conference. The whole debate started out when a two-storey Yarutin house that dates back to 1890 was pulled down in the middle of the night in late

Klyuchevsk Ferrous Alloys Works’ stockholders decided in the course of their annual general meeting at Dvurechensk, Sverdlovsk Region, that the dividend for 2008 shouldn’t be declared. The shareholders also settled the number of the plant’s BOD members (namely, five people) and chose UGTM Audit as their independent auditor.

Rostechnadzor (the state technological safety watchdog) keeps looking into a fatal accident at Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) converter shop. It was detected that the pourer (the victim) got smashed and killed between the steel-tapping unit and the protective rails of the casting platform during the installation of a steel ladle. The investigation is being carried out by Rostechnadzor Lipetsk Division’s Committee.

Alisher Usmanov’s Metalloinvest Holding must pay the full sum for the license entitling the company to the development of Russia’s largest Udokanskoye copper deposit in Zabaikalskiy Territory by June 2009, RIA Novosti quoted Anatoly Ledovskikh (head of the Federal Subsoil Resources Agency) as saying. ‘The deadline for the payment is the month of June,’ he said. According to Ledovskikh, the company has already promised to pay the sum in full. ‘In case they fail to do so, they will lose the five billion RUR one has to pay as the down installment for the license,’ RIA Novosti quotes.

The Russian Federation Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov arrived at Shagol military airfield last night, to be greeted by Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Petr Sumin and head of the Urals and Volga Military District Arkadiy Bakhin. The officials then went to Chebarkul and Miass to take a look at Chebarkul division, Ural car factory, and GRTs. According to the spokesperson for the Governor, Petr Sumin and Anatoly Serdyukov also spoke about the state defense contracts, financing of Chelyabinsk Region-based defense enterprises, and providing the military with the housing they need.

Following the order issued by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel, the region’s Deputy Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations Boris Shipitsin is no longer in office, the spokesperson for the Ministry reports. Boris Shipitsin resigned of his own accord because he wished to retire. The official’s length of state service comes to thirty-eight years.

Sverdlovsk Region is an industrially developed region focused on metallurgy and machine-building, 60% of which happen to be export-oriented. Unfortunately, the demand for the region’s produce has dropped, so have the prices, all of which has resulted in trouble for this area,’ Director of the State Employment Service’s Sverdlovsk Region Department Vyacheslav Krivel admitted at a press conference. ‘I just don’t like to scare the people off by enumerating all the enterprises that have had to make their workers redundant. I do know, however, that things are hard at Uralmashzavod at the moment.