UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 24, 2015. The budget for the military vehicles exhibition Russia Arms EXPO 2015 will come to between 150 and 160m RUR, Director of the event coordinator Business Dialogue Anatoly Kitsura said at a press conference. ‘The money will be directed to the exhibition, the stands, transfer services, catering, business agendas, and the necessary building jobs on the site. Besides, some extra funds will be contributed by the exponents themselves,’ Kitsura said. According to the businessman, 116 companies from Russia, Italy, Belarus, Korea, Turkey, and other countries have

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 23, 2015. The number of people without jobs who registered with Sverdlovsk Region employment agencies came to 33,079 on June 1, 2015, compared with 28,219 a year earlier, the Employment and Labor Department reports. 43,357 people applied to the agencies in search of a suitable job, including 39,501 jobless applicants, compared with 34,419 a year earlier. The official unemployment rate came to 1.45%, compared with 1.22% a year earlier. The overall number of people currently without a job but looking for employment reached 150,875 on June 1, 2015, compared with 118,983

UrBC, Moscow, June 23, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region-based enterprises landed no contracts at Saint Petersburg Economic Forum last week, the constituency’s Investment & Development Minister Alexei Orlov said at a press conference. ‘As a matter of fact, this was not one of our goals. We tend to sign all the important agreements at Innoprom, since this is our home conference and exhibition site. Besides, Innoprom will be held in just two weeks’ time,’ Orlov explained. According to the minister, a few interregional agreements were signed at the forum, however. ‘Sverdlovsk Region Government signed

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 23, 2015. Head of ChTPZ Group’s Marketing Division Sergey Aleschenko and Director-General of Uraltrubostal ChTPZ Warehouse Roman Zelenin took part in the Russian Union of Metal Suppliers Congress in Yalta, the company’s press service reports. The two executives spoke about the Group’s current share of the Russian steel pipes market and discussed the metal goods market trends with representatives of other metallurgical enterprises. ‘In 2014, both Russian and foreign pipe manufacturers sold 10.7m tons of their produce on the Russian market. ChTPZ Group’s share was 3%

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 23, 2015. The annual amateur Olympics took place at Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s stadium in Nizhniy Tagil. Children from 28 corporation-supported kindergartens competed in the games. The company press service reports 208 children aged between six and seven could become actual sports players for one day and compete for cups and medals. Kindergarten personnel took part in the competition for the first time this year, too. ‘The games have grown into a good tradition: Uralvagonzavod has been hosting the event for three years now. The opening address was given by the head

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 23, 2015. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and the country’s top-ranking military officials went to Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s pavilion on the last day of Army 2015 International Military & Technological Forum to see the life-size samples of the company’s produce. According to the corporation’s press service, the latest developments of Nizhniy Novgorod-based Burevestnik, which were the pavilion’s main attraction, were presented by the company director Georgiy Zakamennykh. ‘The officials were particularly interested in the 57-mm artillery unit AU 220M and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 22, 2015. Sverdlovsk Region was not among the top ten Russian constituencies for doing business in, head of the President Administration Sergey Ivanov said at Saint Petersburg Economic Forum. ‘We are getting a picture of what business climate is like in different parts of the country, and this climate, quite predictably and not at all surprisingly, varies greatly. We’ve already come up with the top ten places,’ Interfax cites Ivanov as saying. According to the official, the top ten constituencies with the best business environment are Tambov, Kostroma, Ulyanovsk,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 22, 2015. Seversky Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK) held a professional skills contest for boxmen from the steel-smelting department for the first time this year, TMK press service reports. The contest was coordinated by the department’s management and the plant’s Youth Council. This is the first time such a contest has been held; the idea is to assess the boxmen’s skills and to make sure they meet the modern production standards. To ensure the unfailing performance of the steel-smelting furnace and the CC machine, a boxman must be

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 22, 2015. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) organized a special safety drill dubbed Attention, Summer! According to the company press service, students on the Group’s Future of White Metallurgy Corporate Training Program entered the streets of Pervouralsk to remind parents about safety rules for children on summer holidays. Mothers, fathers, and grandparents were offered over 200 information leaflets with safety tips for rivers and lakes, forests, streets, and homes. The plant’s employees will contribute to the effort by telling the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 22, 2015. ChTPZ Group and Severstal held a strategic cooperation session to look into their performance in the first half of the year, the company’s press service reports. The two parties spoke about the companies’ technological cooperation, smoothness of order fulfillment, and quality of metal produced. ChTPZ Group and Severstal’s joint efforts in the first half of the year resulted in less time spent on delivery: it now takes nine rather than fifteen days to deliver rolled metal products from Cherepovets to Chelyabinsk. The companies also agreed about their future

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 22, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s Director-General Oleg Sienko took part in BRICS Business Forum. According to the corporation’s press service, the businessman said in his report that New Development Bank that is now being established within the BRICS member states should stop using the US dollar as default currency. ‘The bank’s capital assets are currently kept in US dollars. There will come a day when we’ll have to get off this hook and protect our resources, evaluate our efforts for their worth, and grow independent from this or that political status quo on

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 19, 2015. Volchansk Mechanical Plant (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) funded the organization of a practice lab/workshop for mill operators at Karpinsk Machine-Building School, the corporation's press service reports. The lab used to be located right on the plant's premises, yet moving it to the vocational school proved more convenient for the students. The plant equipped one of the classrooms and provided seven machines, all of them made in Russia, namely, a NC machine, three lathes, two drilling machines, and a desk-size tool grinder.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 19, 2015. The number of Yekaterinburg hostels will reach 100 by 2018, Chair of Yekaterinburg Council Amenity Services Committee Maxim Afanasiev said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. According to the official, this will be enough to host all the travelers who'll come to Yekaterinburg for the World Cup 2018. 'Experience has shown most football supporters need inexpensive comfortable accommodation rather than luxury hotels. The city calls for businesspeople to focus on hostels, comfortable small hotels that won't cost one a pretty penny,' the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 19, 2015. Only 1.5% to 2% of Sverdlovsk Region's harvesting equipment will be replaced this year, Agriculture Minister Mikhail Kopytov said at a press briefing in Yekaterinburg. 'We ordered around forty new threshers, this mean 1.5% to 2% of our fleet of vehicles will be replaced. The modest percentage has to do with the fact that investment loans have grown extremely costly this year,' the minister said. Based on the minister's estimates, a quarter of all the harvesting vehicles were already obsolete last year. Head of Sverdlovsk Region

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 19, 2015. The amount of overdue loan payments owed by Ural Federal District residents came to 82.489bn RUR on June 1, 2015, which was 46.8% more than a year earlier. In Sverdlovsk Region, the figure went up by 40.4% on a year earlier and came to 27.564m RUR, the National Enforcement Service reports. Ural Federal District-wide retail loan book reached 1.229 trillion RUR on June 1, 2015 (-0.1% on last year and -5.4% compared with the start of 2015, when the figure was 1.299 trillion RUR). The consolidated retail loan book of Sverdlovsk Region-based banks stood at

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 19, 2015. The sales of new cars went down by 50% (from 27,500 to 13,700) on Sverdlovsk Region market in January through April, AlfaStrakhovaniye's research findings indicate. 'Local market trends are a bit different from the country's average: sales decreased by a half in Sverdlovsk Region, whereas in Russia on the whole, the decline was 38% in the first quarter of the year,' says AlfaStrakhovaniye's Marketing Research & Analysis Director Alexander Lilp. Lada proved the best-selling car on the market: 1,993 Ladas were sold in the four

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 18, 2015. SKB-Bank’s MasterCard Gold was assigned the 18th position in the national debit card rating by Sravni.ru, the bank’s press service reports. The cardholder could get a yield of up to 10% a year on their funds, while the issue and administration fee only comes to 100 RUR a month. The rating experts point out that, even though getting some interest on one’s account balance at the end of the month is a great option, placing substantial sums at a savings deposit with a higher interest rate is a more profitable strategy. The rating was created with the help of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 1, 2015. Ural Airlines won Loyalty Awards Russia 2015 as Gamification of the Year/Best Game-Based Loyalty Scheme, the airline's press service reports. The annual awarding ceremony took place in Moscow. Ural Airlines Wings Club's loyalty scheme (aka Gamification) was given the highest estimates by the judges' panel. Ural Airlines launched Gamification in the summer of 2014, giving the Wings Club members a chance to accumulate premium flight bonuses by completing missions and quests such as visiting specific destinations, setting mileage records, and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 18, 2015. Bank Koltso Urala offers a new service to customers whose questionable credit history makes it difficult for them to get a bank loan, the bank's press service reports. The bank's Retail Management Director Denis Belogurov says they can lend a borrower up to 30,000 RUR within their Reset loan scheme. 'The repayment of this micro-loan will mean the borrower will improve their credit history by adding a successfully redeemed loan to it. This product is mainly targeted at people who find it difficult to persuade the banks to trust them because of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 18, 2015. Uralvagonzavod Corporation's member enterprises presented their new produce at Army 2015, the first international military and technological forum, the corporation's press service reports. For one, Burevestnik (Nizhniy Novgorod) displayed its upgraded armored vehicle BTR 80 for the first time. Thanks to the new set of options, the vehicle's combat capacity has doubled, in addition to improved protection, ergonomic performance, and multi-actor manageability. Moreover, this upgrade set is applicable to other armored vehicle types. Burevestnik