September 18, 2013. An action plan for supporting Sverdlovsk Region businesses was presented at the 4th International Exhibition & Forum Innoprom 2013 and also to Sverdlovsk Region Union of Industrialists & Employers and was approved of by the chairmen of the Union's key committees, Sverdlovsk Region Government's Press Service & Information Department reports. The action plan to support Sverdlovsk Region-based companies was elaborated by the Mid-Urals Development Corporation experts and now comprises a list of subsidies, grants, and tax relief schemes as well as other

September 18, 2013. Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg (a member of Regional Airports Management Company) switched to new jet fuel prices: 1,000 liters of airplane fuel now costs 27,720 RUR, which is 10% less expensive than before. This decision was made by Koltsovo Filling Company (a member of Rosneft) that is in charge of providing jet fuel at the airport, Koltsovo's press service reports. This means that under Rosneft's decision, the price of jet fuel at Yekaterinburg airport is aligned with the Moscow airports' prices. The decrease in prices might affect the cost of the

September 18, 2013. Ural Airlines is going to launch an additional flight to Israel, that is, from Yekaterinburg to Ovda, the airline's press service reports. The new flight will be operated on Tuesdays and Fridays, once every ten to eleven days. Isralux, a travel agent, is to become the primary customer for this flight and is already selling tours for this destination. Ural Airlines operates a scheduled Yekaterinburg-Tel Aviv flight as well.

September 18, 2013. Bank Koltso Urala's retail loan book is now over 14bn RUR big. September typically stands for the start of the business activity season, and this is also true of consumer lending. People come bank from their vacations and summer houses and get down to buying new homes and cars and getting their children ready for school. Bank Koltso Urala's loans proved particularly popular thanks to their improved terms and conditions, convenient services, and the bank's expanded branch network, Koltso Urala reports. This noticeable increase in the bank's loan book

September 18, 2013. The Eurasian Transport Forum will take off at EXPO Exhibition Center in Yekaterinburg tomorrow. The forum is dedicated to the development of the transport industry in the Russian Federation and Ural Federal District and to modernization of transport and transport infrastructure on the basis of a government program called Russia's Transport Strategy in 2013-2020. Representatives of some 50 transport companies from all parts of Russia are going to attend the event. Among the points on the agenda are insurance, leasing, and railway technologies. The round table

September 17, 2013. The production upgrades at MMK METIZ improved the enterprise’s share of the market, MMK METIZ Deputy Director for Technical Upgrades & Prospective Development Nikolai Karavayev said at the 2nd All-Russian conference called Wire & Hardware 2013 in Orel. The top manager of Magnitogorsk Metal Goods Plant (MMK METIZ) gave a speech on how the plant tries to preserve, expand, and upgrade its production capacity. According to Karavayev, the integration of Magnitogorsk metal goods and gauging plants into MMK Group and their merging in one enterprise called MMK METIZ in

September 17, 2013. The heat and electricity supplier Oblkommunenergo owes some 260m RUR to its natural gas suppliers, while the former's end customers actually owe the company up to 600m RUR worth of unpaid housing bills. Even so, the enterprise is ready for the start of the heating season, Oblkommunenergo's press service says. The councils of nearly all the cities and towns that have a contract with this supplier have already signed decrees on the launch of the heating season. The heating season starts when the outside temperature stays at the level of below 8 degrees centigrade

September 17, 2013. Ural Airlines flew this year's 3,000,000th passenger in September. The air carrier reports the passenger checked in for the earliest flight operated on that day – U6 264 Yekaterinburg-Moscow, at 6:50 AM on September 12, 2013. 'Congratulating this special passengers has become a good tradition for the airline, as there are more and more of them every year,' the company's press service says. Ural Airlines keeps increasing its passenger turnover that grew 26% bigger in the eight months of 2013 compared with a year earlier. In 2012, the 3,000,000th

September 17, 2013. 629,500 sq m worth of housing was commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in January-August 2013; this is 15.2% more than in January-August 2012, the press service of Sverdlovsk Region Economics Ministry reports. Most of the dwellings (297,964 sq m altogether) were commissioned in Yekaterinburg; 42,277 sq m were commissioned in Sysert, 23,791 sq m were commissioned in Berezovsky, 23,248 sq m were commissioned in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, 23,190 sq m were commissioned in Beloyarsky District, 17,140 sq m were commissioned in Pervouralsk, 13,225 sq m were commissioned in Sredneuralsk,

September 17, 2013. MegaFon looked into the results of its retail segment development in the Urals over the last four years. There are currently 238 retail outlets run by MegaFon in Ural Federal District, with over 24m visitors a year, the company's press service reports. 'MegaFon Retail won a very stable share of the mobile phone market by offering its customers a wide range of makes to choose from and a professional approach to customers. On average, every MegaFon outlet in the Urals has more than 160 smartphone makes and 85 mobile phone makes for sale. In 2013, it was MegaFon

September 17, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) won the tender for the delivery of pipe produce to Yamal SPG, the enterprise's press service reports. Yamal SPG, whose shares belong to Novatek and the French O&G company Total, is now working on the development of Yuzhno-Tambeiskoye natural gas condensate deposit located in the north-east of the Yamal Peninsula. The large-scale project on the development of the deposit provides for the construction of some 200 wells, a plant meant for natural gas liquefaction with the capacity of 16.5m tons a year, an international sea port, and

September 16, 2013. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) was among the top ten most dynamically and stably developing production companies in Russia. The company reports that this has to do with MMK’s technical upgrades policy: the company built a number of major production facilities with advanced metallurgical technologies, including the modern, highly productive section facility, a very new electric steel-smelting set, a unique unit for making plate steel (Mill5000 plus a secondary refining unit), and a unit for making good quality automobile body sheets (Mill2000). The rating of the

September 16, 2013. SinaraHybrid, a loco with the TEM9H hybrid power unit developed by Sinara Transport Machines (STM, a member of Sinara Group) won the second prize in the best innovations contest coordinated among the member enterprises of Railway Machinery Producers’ Union Non-Profit Partnership. Sinara Group’s press officer says that the contest was held during the 4th International Railway Vehicles & Technologies Show EXPO 1520 in Shcherbinka. There were three categories to compete in: Locos and Engine Railway Vehicles, Carriages, and Infrastructure Components. Russia’s first

September 16, 2013. According to the data provided by Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal State Statistics Service, the nominal median pay of a worker located in Sverdlovsk Region came to 28,200. 6 RUR a month in July 2013, which was 10.8% more than a year earlier, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region Economics Ministry reports. The median pay for January to July 2013 came to 26,959,8 RUR a month (+10.8% on January-July 2012); the median figures for the country on the whole were 29,013 RUR (+12.9%). The Ministry says that the pay rose in virtually all the economic sectors in the seven

September 16, 2013. Ural Locomotives (a joint venture run by Sinara Group and Siemens AG based in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Region) got a certificate of compliance with the international railway industry standards (IRIS), Sinara Group’s PR Center reports. The certificate was presented to the company’s Director-General Alexander Saltayev at the general meeting of the members of Railway Machinery Producers’ Union, a non-profit partnership. The meeting was held during the 4th International Railway Vehicles & Technologies Show EXPO 1520. Senior Vice President of Russian Railways Valentin

September 16, 2013. The construction of DreamWorks, a theme park, might begin in Yekaterinburg in the summer of 2014. The 100,000-square-meter park is expected to get up to 3m visitors every year, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policies Department reports. On September 12, Governor Evgeny Kuivashev met the potential investors, including the BOD member of REGIONs Group and REGIONs Development’s Project Development Director Amiran Mutsoyev. ‘We met to discuss the possibility of implementing a project of a theme park called DreamWorks in Yekaterinburg and decided to take some time

September 16, 2013. Mid-Urals Development Corporation came to own 34.56% of Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg, the corporation reports. This means Sverdlovsk Region authorities completed the process of handing their share in the business to the corporation, which is run by the local authorities. According to Kommersant, the shareholding was transferred to the corporation in order to meet the investors’ requirements and thus ensure the development of the airport; the requirements were laid out when the shareholding in Koltsovo was transferred from the federal to the region’s authorities in May

September 13, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region’s revenues coming from the use of public property exceeded the target figures by 10% to 15%. The income stemming from renting and selling the land amounted to 634m RUR, which was also 11% more than expected, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policies Department reports. ‘In terms of renting and selling land allotments with undetermined ownership rights, our income came to 634m RUR, which is 11% more than the target figures. Rent yielded over 56m RUR worth of income, which was 15% more than expected,’ Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management

September 13, 2013. Yekaterinburg Vodokanal (the municipal water supply company) used the latest technologies to reconstruct the two-section underwater collector under the River Iset, the city council’s press service reports. Two branches of the sewerage network, with the diameters of 1,000mm and 296m long, were built under the water in 1996. The next seventeen years left the branches totally worn out and therefore the environmental safety of the River Iset was put in jeopardy. A tender held to select the renovator for the collector resulted in choosing a Danish manufacturer that delivered a

September 13, 2013. The incomplete building of the TV tower in Yekaterinburg and the area surrounding it came to be owned by Sverdlovsk Region, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s Information Policies Department reports. The documents securing these new ownership rights with Sverdlovsk Region were signed in early September. At the same time, Sverdlovsk Region Public Property Management Ministry signed a paper on allocating a land allotment in Uktus for the construction of the new tower. ‘The typical design that was used in Saint Petersburg will serve as the foundation of this new project. The