December 23, 2013. Deputy Heads of Yekaterinburg Administration Evgeniy Lipovitch and Alexander Vysokinsky looked at the new makes of tramways on Friday, December 20. According to Yekaterinburg Administration’s press service, the two officials took a ride on Russia’s first low-floor tram and also tested the carriages that are powered by accumulators. Both samples were assembled at Uraltransmash (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation). According to the plant’s Chief Civil Goods Designer Vladimir Soloviev, the accumulator-powered trams can run for about 70km in the summer and for

December 23, 2013. MegaFon is Russia’s first mobile carrier to launch 4G network in Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Region. Now the residents of Nizhnevartovsk and Nefteyugansk can enjoy access to fast mobile Internet with the speed of up to 50 Mb/sec (and up to 150 Mb/sec in the future), the company’s press service says. ‘Mobile Internet is a very popular service with Yugra residents. The volume of Internet traffic in the area exceeded 4m gigabytes in this year alone. We are now offering our customers a new technology – high-speed mobile 4G Internet connection by MegaFon that is available to

December 23, 2013. RBC.Rating came up with a rating of non-Moscow Russian banks as of October 1, 2013. VUZ-Bank was given a rather good 72nd position in the rating. The volume of banks’ net assets was the primary criterion for assessment, the bank reports. The final list comprised 402 lending institutions registered outside Moscow. The banks with HQ in Saint Petersburg were not excluded from the rating. The total net assets of all the non-Moscow banks stood at nearly 5.8 trillion RUR as of October 1, 2013. The federal constituencies with the largest number of banks and greatest net asset

December 23, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Economics Ministry announced a tender for the organization of the international exhibition Innoprom; the sum of the contract comes to up to 300m RUR. The winner will be given the right to coordinate the event for three years in a row, whereas the tender only used to be good for one year before. The order for the coordination and implementation of the event is placed on the government purchases website. According to the order specifications, the contractor will have to devise a long-term concept for the exhibition that will include the theme of the event,

December 23, 2013. Starting January 1, 2014, the Federal Act 44-FZ on Contract System in the Field of Government & Municipal Purchases of Goods, Work, and Services dated April 5, 2013 will come into effect. The new law sets out a single standard for such civil law contracts. Under the legislation, online trade operators will be allowed to open accounts to control the money coming in from the purchasers in the form of security, but these accounts will have to be opened with the certain financially stable banks whose list must be confirmed by the Russian Federation Government, SKB-Bank’s

December 20, 2013. Industrial production output in Yekaterinburg grew by 12.6% in the ten months of 2013. According to the spokesperson for the city council, the industrial production index was 109.2% over the same time period. 'Today's Yekaterinburg is a multi-functional center. Most of the socioeconomic development indicators of the Urals' capital keep on improving. The high industrial growth rate makes a positive impact on the salaries and wages – the median figure now comes to nearly 36,000 RUR,' the message states.

December 20, 2013. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ, a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) was declared the winner of the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Prize for Energy Saving in 2013; the plant won in the category denominated as Mining & Metallurgical Facility Organization, the plant's press service reports. In 2013, PNTZ carried out a set of measures that saved the company 80m RUR. For one, the lighting in the four departments was replaced with the more modern kind, an automatic control system was launched at the compressor plant of the gas department, and a filtering facility was

December 20, 2013. 27% of Russians feel that their financial situation got worse over the last year. Only 11% of residents said their life grew better, and the majority of those surveyed (60%) believe that their financial situation remained the same, Levada Center's statistical research says. The Russian citizens' plans for next year look pretty much the same. 11% of those surveyed expect their life to get better, another 20% think their incomes will shrink, and 57% do not think anything is going to change in financial terms. Another 12% are not sure what changes might occur. The

December 20, 2013. Bank Koltso Urala was featured in a reputed rating compiled by RBC.Rating. It got the 30th position on the list of Russia's top 30 largest banks, the bank's press service reports. 'Their net asset volume as of October 1, 2013 was the primary criterion for assessing the banks. The figure was calculated on the basis of the rating agency's own method. The final list featured 402 lending institutions that are registered outside Moscow,' the rating experts say. According to the agency's data, Bank Koltso Urala, with its 35.6bn RUR worth of net asset

December 20, 2013. In November 2013, 126,000 sq m worth of housing were commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region, which was 24.4% less than in October 2013, Sverdlovskstat reports. All in all, 1,022,400 sq m worth of housing were put up in eleven months of 2013, which is 65% less than in the eleven months of 2012. The index of the actual volume of construction jobs went down by 5.8% in November 2013 compared with October 2013 and by 9.5% compared with January-November 2012.

December 19, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region’s industrial production index decreased by 4% in November 2013 compared with October 2013 and by 0.01% compared with January-November 2012, Sverdlovskstat’s papers state. The production index for mineral resources went down by 4.2% in November 2013 against October 2013 and increased by 3.3% against the eleven months of 2012. In the processing sector, the index declined by 2.3% in November 2013 compared with October 2013 and rose by 0.1% compared with January-November 2012. The index for the production and distribution of electric power, natural gas and

December 19, 2013. The special economic zone Titanium Valley, located in Sverdlovsk Region, will be allocated 4.8bn RUR from the federal budget in 2015-2017. The zone will also be given at least 4.7bn RUR from Sverdlovsk Region’s budget and non-budget sources, the Titanium Valley’s press release says. The decree that confirms the allocation of funds has not been published on the government website yet. The 4.8bn RUR worth of federal budget funds will be allocated to the construction of the infrastructure facilities in the Titanium Valley in 2015-2017 under the Russian Federation Government

December 19, 2013. Transport Machine-Building Design Office (KBTM, a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) completely fulfilled the government defense order for 2013, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The company produced three times more goods and offered its customers three time more services than last year within the framework of the government defense order. Also, capital repairs and upgrade of T72 tanks were completed under the contract of co-fulfilling a defense order with Uralvagonzavod (the corporation’s head plant). The repaired and upgraded tanks were

December 19, 2013. Two employees of UEKhK (a member enterprise of Rosatom’s TVEL based in Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region) – master of sports in mountain skiing Tatiana Burdina and deserved Russia’s master of sports and world champion in power lifting Sergey Knyazev took part in the Olympic Torch relay in Yekaterinburg on December 14, the company’s press service reports. The nuclear industry workers from Novouralsk were among 300 relay participants who carried the future fire of the Sochi Olympics along the streets of Yekaterinburg. The radar operator of the plant’s Central Lab Tatiana

December 19, 2013. In 2013, Sverdlovsk Region’s position in the living standards rating for Russian Federation constituencies became worse, dropping down from the 10th to the 11th position. The population’s income declined last year, housing conditions deteriorated, as did the environmental and the demographic situations. At the same time, the safety of neighborhoods and the economic development improve a little, says research on the living standards in the federal constituencies compiled by RIA Rating. The quality of Sverdlovsk Region residents’ life went down on the whole: a year ago, the

December 18, 2013. Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) won a tender conducted by the Federal Agency for Special Construction, whose subdivision deals in putting up special purpose and defense facilities. Under the terms of the tender, the plant will deliver 12 B11medium traction bulldozers to Spetsstroy RF 12, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘The tender was organized to purchase different kinds of machinery the military builders will need in 2014. ChTZ competed with other manufacturers of road building vehicles, and not only in this

December 18, 2013. The public prosecution authorities of Tagilstroyevsky District of Nizhniy Tagil conducted a scheduled on-site inspection of how Iron Goods Plant complied with the labor legislation. The spokesperson for the public prosecution authorities of Sverdlovsk Region reports that it has been detected the company did not have all of its work places certified for compliance with the legal norms, and the people in charge of labor protection were not tested for expertise in this area. No schemes were set out for the movement of vehicles or for the employee routes. No information was

December 18, 2013. Ural Airlines is opening a new flight from Chelyabinsk to Prague. The air carrier will operate these flights during the winter vacation (December 27, January 2, and January 9), and starting on April 5, 2014, the flight will be operated every Saturday, the airline’s press service reports. ‘The first passengers on this new flight will be able to enjoy the beauty and charm of wintertime Prague very soon! And travelers going to the Czech Republic in the spring will feel like artists – Prague’s picturesque landscapes will remind them of water color paintings,’ the airline says.

December 18, 2013. 1,022,400 sq m worth of housing was commissioned in Sverdlovsk Region in January-November 2013, which came to 93.5% of the figure for 2012. All in all, 11,864 apartments were built (compared with 13,479 apartments in January-November 2012). Local residents put up 531,400 sq m worth of housing using their own and borrowed funds, which is 14.8% more than a year earlier. 52% of this is made up of private houses (compared with 42.3% in January-November 2012).

December 18, 2013. Members of Yekaterinburg Land Committee decided in the course of their meeting to allocate extra land allotments to build a new road junction at the intersection of Amundsen St and Onufriev St, Yekaterinburg Council’s press service reports. ‘The construction of the junction with an overhead road in Amundsen St and Onufriev St will only begin if financing is provided from the region’s budget. We are fully aware of the significance of this junction and understand that this project cannot be halted. At the moment, the project documentation is nearly ready, and it will undergo