October 22 The 6th Interregional Scientific/Practical Conference on Innovational Technologies, Defense Systems, Science, & Education was held in Omsk. All in all, over 450 Russian and foreign companies and scientific and educational establishments took part in the event. Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation was represented by Deputy DG for Special Vehicles Vyachelsav Khalitov, Director-General of Ural Transport Machine-Building Design Office Andrei Terlikov from Nizhniy Tagil, and Director-General of Transport Machine-Building Design Office from Omsk Igor Lobov. The

October 19 The Federal Housing Construction Facilitation Fund is coordinating an auction aimed at letting a land allotment in Sysert District, Sverdlovsk Region, with the total area of 43.3 hectares. The land allotment is meant for multi-faceted area development. The opening bid has been set at 5.54m RUR, every other bid has to be at least 200,000 RUR greater, the fund’s website states. The rental contract will be signed for seven years. The allotment allows for the construction of 41,000 sq m worth of housing, and 75% of the allotment is to be used for putting up low-rise economy class

October 19 The industrial production index for all the enterprises operating in Sverdlovsk Region in January-September 2012 exceeded the figures for January-September 2011 by 8.7%, the regional Economics Ministry reports. Compared with a year earlier, the actual industrial production volumes rose most in the machine-building and equipment manufacturing industry (+44.8%), in the chemicals industry (+42.3%), in the rubber and plastic goods industry (+22.6%), in the electronic and optical equipment industry (+18.7%), in the food manufacturing industry (including drinks and tobacco) (+15.1%), and

October 19 The current exchange rate of the national currency against the foreign ones influences the population’s trust in the ruble greatly, OOO Bank Koltso Urala’s press service refers to the bank’s experts as saying. ‘It’s obvious that, when the ruble is getting a bit stronger, the USD quotations are either dropping or remain the same, and the level of trust increases. When the ruble is getting weaker and the dollar is rising, the level of trust goes down. On the whole, the ruble looks not bad at all in the long term when compared with the dollar/euro combination – given especially the

October 19 The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development now runs a regular rubric on Yekaterinburg online portal called E1.ru. Any user can now learn about what unit investment funds are and about how they operate, get professional advice on shaping one’s portfolio, on risk calculation, and on choosing an investment strategy from the URBD’s two highly skilled experts: Head of the Finance & Investment Services Department Vladimir Zotov and the Investment Services Director Maxim Golubkov, the bank’s press office reports. This rubric also offers detailed information on the UBRD

October 19 Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s head office in Nizhniy Tagil completed its preparations for the winter. In 2012, nearly a billion RUR was spent on this, which is several times more than in the previous years. The company currently maintains over 700 buildings and structures, about 100km worth of highways, pavements, and other such objects (namely, railways, electric mains, and pipelines). All these facilities get prepared for their safe operation during the winter period every year. Most of such jobs are usually done in the summer. This year, the

October 18 Sverdlovsk Region is going to sell the shareholding it has in OAO Koltsovo Airport. The transaction is expected to amount to at least 2bn RUR. This intention was voiced at a recent government meeting when the program for public property management for 2013 was being considered. A 34.56% shareholding in the airport was handed over to Sverdlovsk Region in early February 2011. It was believed then that this transfer would help attract 32bn RUR worth of investments by 2030. The money was supposed to go to upgrading the airport infrastructure through state-private partnership. It was

October 18 Irbit Dairy Plant now has a new Director-General. The plant is now headed by Sergey Suyetin, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Administration reports. Evgeny Pilshchikov, who was the company’s Director for eighteen years, turned 74 and retired this year. Prior to accepting his new position, Suyetin ran Berezovsky Dairy Plant. Irbit Dairy Plant reorganized into a joint stock company in December 2011. The company’s only shareholder with a 100% holding is Sverdlovsk Region Government.

October 18 The technical plan of the AC electric freight locomotives with asynchronous traction was presented at Ural Locomotives (a JV run by Sinara Group and Siemens AG) in Verkhnyaya Pyshma. The freight locomotive is a two-section, 16-wheel loco with four bogies that can be used in many modifications, as the entire chain can be controlled synchronously from any foot-plate; the loco can also head the trains weighing up to 9,000 tons. The machine is fitted with a very advanced BLOC safety system as well as a microprocessor control system that has autopilot, diagnostics, data transfer,

October 18 The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s new company style and logo meet the purposes of the re-branding campaign that was launched on October 1, the bank’s customers feel. The research conducted on October 3-11 involved 146 respondents who stopped by the new branch opened at 55 Malyshev St, the bank’s press office reports. The respondents were asked to evaluate the bank along the following criteria: professionalism, technological aptitude, transparency, and quality of service. Those surveyed also voiced their opinion of the UBRD’s new image. 95% of respondents feel

October 18 60% of Russian citizens surveyed by the Public Opinion Fund said that out of all the currencies they trusted the Russian ruble most of all. 13% prefer the dollar, 11% feel that the euro is the safest choice, and 3% trust some other currency, SKB-Bank’s press service reports. The trust in the ruble fell against March 2012 when it was the highest throughout the entire period of the Fund’s monitoring it (69%). The Public Opinion Fund’s analysts observe that these are the retirees, people with secondary education or the less educated who trust the ruble most. The resource-rich groups

October 17 A full-cycle insulin production facility will be set up in Sverdlovsk Region in the next eighteen months; this insulin’s quality will equal that of its foreign counterparts, but it will be nearly 33% less expensive. Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev is going to talk about an innovational model for the development of the medical and the pharmaceutical industries and about ensuring drug safety in Russia at the Russian Government meeting on October 18, the Governor’s Information Policy Department reports. The Ural industry’s achievements in the field of developing

October 17 The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development announced the close of its special offer dubbed Back from a Holiday and back on Vacation that was run by Visa. At the moment, the winners are being contracted, the bank reports. One of the winners is the UBRD’s customer, a Yekaterinburg resident named Alexander Antipin. Under the terms of this special offer, Antipin made the greatest number of Visa card transactions abroad between July 1 and August 31 and won a 75,000-RUR gift certificate that can be used to pay for a trip to any destination on the map. The winner says this prize

October 17 OOO Koltso Urala raised its term loan portfolio to 16bn RUR. According to Expert-Region, this makes the bank Ural Federal District’s 5th largest bank in this respect. The loan portfolio grows by 500m RUR a month on average, the bank’s press service refers to its retail sector management experts as saying. One of the main reasons why the loan portfolio keeps growing steadily is the general consumer mood, which is focused on saving at the moment, as well as the advantageous offers for private individuals, the company reports. For one, Bank Koltso Urala is now offering a convenient

October 17 OAO Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) started its shipments of pipe products for the construction of underwater pipelines at Vladimir Filanovsky oil and gas deposit in the northern part of the Caspian Sea. The deposit is now being developed by Lukoil. The Malaysian Bumi Armada Berhard and the Italian SAIPEM S.p.A. won the tenders for the construction of the pipelines. The oil and the natural gas underwater pipelines that will connect Filanovsky deposit and Korchagin deposit (also operated by Lukoil) will be built by Bumi Armada Caspian, a subdivision of the Malaysian Bumi Armada

October 17 Sverdlovsk Poultry Plant and Pervouralsk Poultry Plant will be offered for sale in 2013, Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Public Property Management’s press service told UrBC. The two poultry plants will be sold by auction under the program on Sverdlovsk Region-based public property management, head of the ministry’s Information & Analytics Department Galina Utkina says. In 2014, two more assets within the regional poultry industry – Refta Poultry Plant and Sredneuralsk Poultry Plant – will also probably be sold.

October, 16 The loan portfolios comprising loans offered to SMEs rose by 10% in the first half of 2012 and reached 4.3 trillion RUR. A year earlier, these portfolios only rose by 6.4%. These data are available from the report on SMEs lending in Russia that was drawn up by Expert RA Agency, SKB-Bank’s press service reports. The experts behind this report point out that these were the top 30 SMEs-lending banks in the country that contributed most to this positive dynamics. SKB-Bank had one of the fastest SME loan portfolio growth rates: the bank’s portfolio soared by 41.14% in the first half of

October, 16 OAO Sinara Pipe Plant (STZ), a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), commissioned its special training room with a software set called the Cold-Rolling Mill Operator Simulator, TMK’s press service reports. This room is a part of the company’s investment project on personnel training and professional development. The simulator is meant for training future cold-rolling mill operators using innovational training methods and ensuring greater professional training safety at the same time. The set comprises the special software, computer-equipped seats for the trainer and the

October, 16 The Chinese yuan vs. the U.S. dollar rate of exchange exceeded the 19-year maximum last week. This was caused by the Chinese authorities’ decision to allow for a small increase in the rate, which came as a surprise for many investors, Bank Koltso Urala reports. According to The Financial Times, the yuan has gone up by 2% against the dollar in the last three months and now the rate comes to 6.2676 yuan per dollar. On October 12, the growth came to 0.15%. Under the new rules, the yuan rate growth rate is kept within 1% a day. The yuan used to be traded quite low against the dollar

October, 16 Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Evgeny Kuivashev approved of the project on the construction of sports facilities that will be known as Uralets Entertainment Center. The Governor signed the rough plan of the project, the Governor’s Information Policies Department reports. ‘You can start the more detailed design now,’ Kuivashev said. Evgeny Kuivashev signed the plan at the close of the hockey match played by Avtomobilist against Saint Petersburg’s SKA on October 13. The facility will comprise a few ice areas for both practicing and holding matches, a swimming pool, and a hotel. The