UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 20, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant’s management met all of its Collective Agreement and social responsibility obligations in full last year, the company press service reports. The enterprise worked towards both meeting the target production and sales figures while enhancing labor productivity and employee retention as well as avoiding large-scale layoffs. A multi-faceted action plan was adopted to cut production and selling costs and thus make the company more economically and financially stable. In 2015, the company’s staff numbered slightly over

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2016. 84% of Sverdlovsk Region Union of Industrialists & Entrepreneurs member enterprises did not use any state support mechanisms in 2015. This was announced at the Union’s 25th Convention in Yekaterinburg. Also, 80.36% of local enterprises surveyed pointed to extremely heavy taxation of their businesses.

«UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2016. Metcombank and MSP Bank signed a framework agreement to provide SMEs’ investment projects with the bank guarantees they need, the bank’s press service reports. ‘The main idea behind this guaranty mechanism is to make financial resources more affordable for small and medium enterprises. The agreement means a business can get a ten-year guarantee on very good terms,’ says Metcombank Chair of the Board Dmitri Torbenko. The guarantees in question are connected to banks which issue loans meant to finance small and medium enterprises’ investment projects, with

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2016. Ural Airlines are offering plane tickets at special prices to Great Patriotic War veterans and people accompanying them in celebration of this year’s Victory Day, the air carrier’s press service reports. The war veterans can get their tickets at a 100% discount, while people accompanying them on board will only have to pay 10% of an economy class ticket’s cost. Tickets can be booked at the local booking offices starting from April 16; discounts are offered on flights to be operated on May 3-13. The special offer holds for flights from Barnaul, Chelyabinsk,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2016. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant/ChTPZ carried its annual IAS-based financial report for 2015, the company press service reports. The company’s revenues rose by 16% compared with the year 2014 and reached148.367bn RUR; its gross profits went up by 18%, its EBITDA by 27% (up to 28.901bn RUR), its EBITDA margin by 2% (up to 19.5%). ’The Russian pipe manufacturers’ performance got affected by the unstable global economy, high metal prices, and the foreign currency market’s great volatility last year. However, as the plant started selling more high-profit-margin

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 19, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation is taking part in the 15th International Asian DSA 2016 Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on April 18-21. The corporation’s stand featured its promising developments for the military, including the fire support vehicle Terminator, the tanks T90 C and (upgraded) T72, the maintenance/recovery vehicle BREM 1M, the combat mobility vehicle IMR 3M, and the bridge-laying device MTU 72. The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Malaysia Valeriy Yermolov and other important officials visited the stand on the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2016. Head of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Rubtsovsky subsidiary Sergei Kurkin won in the annual Director of the Year 2015/Altai Territory Contest in the Industrial Production category, the corporation’s press service reports. ‘Under the terms of the contest, a successful manager is the one who ensures their enterprise’s sustainable development and economic and social growth and thus contributes to the development of the area and the country on the whole. Ural Vagon Zavod’s Rubtsovsky subsidiary is currently one of Altai Territory’s most stable businesses

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant’s Personnel Training Center will host the International Total Spelling Quiz 2016 for the first time on April 16 to give the company workers a chance to test their spelling and punctuation skills. According to the corporation’s press service, Ural Vagon Zavod is currently Russia’s second business (Sberbank being the first) to provide its workers with a special site to host the world wide literacy flash mob. The company youth organization and trade union are contributing to the coordination of the event, and over a

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2016. Ural Airlines are now offering special prices on their Krasnodar-Rimini and Samara-Rimini flights to be operated between April 30 and May 7, the air carrier’s press service reports. Prices start from 11,800 RUR and 23,800 RUR (one way and round trip tickets, respectively) for Krasnodar-Rimini flight (one way) and from 14,100 RUR and 29,100 RUR for Samara-Rimini flights, all fees and charges included. Tickets can be booked at the company website www.uralairlines.com, over the mobile app UralAirlines, over the phone at the company call center, or at any

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2016. Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant/PNTZ (a member enterprise of ChTPZ Group) won a laureate’s certificate and a commemorative badge in Russia’s 100 Organizations with Best Environmental Management Contest. According to the Group’s press service, the plant also won as the Best Increase in Environmental Projects Financing and as Project of the Year for the construction of a close-cycle cleaning and filtering facility. The Environmentalist of the Year 2016 badge was awarded to the plant’s Managing Director Vladislav Golovin. ‘The company adopted a long-term

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 18, 2016. iCard, SKB-Bank’s latest debit card offer, proved one of Russia’s ten best-terms debit cards according to Sravni.ru. The top ten products were selected from among six hundred different bank card types. The bank’s press service reports the rating was based on the profit a debit card yields to a customer (interest rate on the account balance plus cash back options). The holder of SKB-Bank’s MasterCard or iCard can get up to 7% a year as interest on their account balance; as for the cash back options, 0.5% is offered on every purchase and 1% on every amount

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 15, 2016. Ural Airlines are now offering special prices for their Moscow-Lisbon flights to be operated on May 15-29, 2016, the air carrier’s press service reports. Round trip tickets start from 17,370 RUR, one-way ones from 8,050 RUR. Special prices are also offered on flights to be operated on May8-15 (25,000 RUR and 11,500 RUR, respectively). The airline’s Moscow-Lisbon flight will be operated every Sunday starting from May 1, 2016 and also every Thursday starting from May 29, 2016; Airbus liners will be used for the purpose. ’Cabo da Roca in Portugal with its

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 15, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development (UBRD) now offers better terms on its Bonus Deposit for new and existing customers without a settlement account, the bank’s press service reports. ‘The bank now offers an extra 0.5% a year on top of the regular interest rate on an existing deposit if a customer opens the Test Drive or Test Drive Premium settlement account at UBRD as well,’ the press service says. The same terms will be offered to new customers who’d like to deposit some money with the bank. Additionally, Bonus Deposit and settlement

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 15, 2016. Aktyubinsk Copper Company (a member enterprise of Russian Copper Company in Kazakhstan) joined the Aktyubinsk Region SME Support Program, the company press service reports. The program protocol was signed in Aktoba on April 9, 2016 by Aktyubinsk Region’s akim Berdybek Saparbayev, members of the Business Chamber Atameken, and representatives of large local enterprises. The goal is to support small and medium enterprises in 2016-2018. The SME support program was drawn up at the request of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The program is expected

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 15, 2016. Metcombank’s Perm subsidiary signed a cooperation agreement with Perm Guaranty Fund after being selected among a number of other financial organizations, the bank’s press service reports. ‘This agreement means the bank can use the fund’s guaranty as collateral for a loan or as a guaranty for small and medium enterprises,’ says Metcombank Deputy Chair of the Board Vladimir Batalov. According to the bank representatives, the security banks and guaranty funds provide together is one of the ways the government supports SMEs by giving them more access to banks’

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 15, 2016. The younger workers of LEPSE (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation) acted as volunteer IT instructors for Grandma Online Festival in Kovrov School 45, the company press service reports. ‘The goal was to help the company’s old-service employees register with the government services web portal, set up their personal email address, and make a doctor’s appointment over the Internet. Two two-hour lessons were not in vain: the thankful students grew quite interested in the World Wide Web and were presented with a self-study workbook to help them

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region-based employers delayed paying their workers a total of 13.67m RUR in wages and salaries by April 1, 2016 (up 4.3% compared with March 2016), Sverdlovskstat reports. According to the statistics agency, four local companies informed them of the wage arrears problem, with 601 employees not getting paid on time.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2016. A new tram line connecting Wilhelm de Gennin St, Serafima Deryabina St, Tokarei St, Sakharov St, and Tatishchev St is expected to get fully designed and approved of by the state board of experts by August 2016 at the latest, Yekaterinburg city council’s press service refers to chair of construction committee Nikolai Smetanin as saying. The line’s general design contractor Uralgiprotrans is in charge of developing the first stage of the construction, that is, a section of the tram route from the ring in Sakharov St to Vonsovsky St to Wilhelm de Gennin St,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2016. Twice as many new businesses switched to MegaFon as their telecommunications provider in March 2016 against a month earlier, MegaFon Ural’s press service reports. ‘The Ural business customers market’s current primary trend is more companies switching to a new provider while retaining their telephone numbers. This MNP service has so far proven most popular with companies based in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Tyumen Regions,’ MegaFon’s press service says. Compared with one year earlier, 189% more b2b customers chose MegaFon in March 2016 than in March 2015.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2016. Over 10,000 workers from Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (member enterprises of ChTPZ Group) underwent professional development training (fully covered by the company) last year, the Group’s press service reports. Some 30m RUR were directed for the purpose. 4,082 employees (managers as well as white- and blue-collar workers) underwent the training, most of which was related to industrial, radiation, and environmental safety and labor protection for steeplejacks and related jobs. Also, 6,234 workers obtained their first,