UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2016. Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev signed a decree to allocate funds to businesses in Chechnya, Dagestan, Ulyanov Region, and Sverdlovsk Region to help them keep their workers employed, the Cabinet’s website states. The decision was taken as part of the Russian Government’s crisis management plan. 313m RUR will be provided for the purpose, of which 46.449m RUR will be directed to Sverdlovsk Region. The money will be given to local businesses to help them keep locals employed. This includes workers who otherwise risk being made redundant. Additionally,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2016. Yekaterinburg’s industrial production index rose by 40.3% in January-May 2016 compared with one year earlier. For one, the IPI went up by as much as 53.6% in the processing industry, the city council’s press service reports. Large and medium enterprises in the processing sector sold their customers 130.1bn RUR worth of goods in the first five months of 2016, which exceeds the figures for one year earlier by 25.9%. ‘The increase in output was mainly due to machine-building businesses, whose sales rose by 33.8% in January-May 2016; also, vehicle and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s customers carried out over 90,000 transactions involving sale or purchase of U.S. dollars, euros, and pounds sterling in the first half of the year; the transactions amounted to more than 7.7bn RUR altogether, twice as much as one year earlier, the bank’s press service reports. The amount of foreign currency bought rose by three times, that of foreign currency sold rose by 1.5 times. The UBRD Financial Markets Director Vladimir Zotov says the increase in the number of transactions has to do with great

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2016. The awarding ceremony of Minute of Tech Fame Contest took place at the International Industrial Exhibition Innoprom in Yekaterinburg. EVRAZ Holding has acted as the innovative ideas contest’s general sponsor for the fifth time this year. According to the company press service, the first prize went to do post-doc students Alexander Ponomarev and Leonid Tabakov. They can now apply for a degree in one of the world’s leading business schools, with their tuition fees fully covered.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 22, 2016. A new website rio.uvz.ru was launched with Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s support fifteen days before the opening of the 21st Olympic Games in Brazil, the company press service reports. The website is dedicated to Sputnik Hockey Club’s sports players, Sverdlovsk Region Cycling & Mountain Bike Federation’s cyclists, and Armada Paralympic Team’s sports men and women competing as part of the Russian national team. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation acts as the general sponsor for all the three organizations. ‘The website features information about our renowned

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 21, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Kamensk-Uralsky Foundry Plant (KULZ) was awarded an honorary certificate and a trophy flag as the winner in Kamensk-Uralsky’s Best Business 2015 Contest, the company press service reports. The ceremony took place on the eve of Metallurgist’s Day. The plant was awarded in the Industrial Enterprises category along with the city’s other major production enterprises. Representatives of Southern Administrative District, the city council, and Sinara District also congratulated the plant workers on Metallurgist’s Day and presented

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 21, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) recently launched a new compressed-air dehydration unit; the air is needed in the metal-rolling process. The new equipment is expected to cut energy spending by 10m kilowatt-hours a year, the company press service reports. Two highly productive dehydrators got commissioned to remove excess humidity and impurities from the air. The air gets dried and filtered with their help. The unit is fully automated, with all the necessary settings calibrated remotely. The new machines produce an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 21, 2016. Seversky Pipe Plant (a member enterprise of Pipe Metallurgical Company/TMK) opened a new Vocational Training Center on the eve of Metallurgist’s Day and the company’s 15th anniversary, the company press service reports. The center is a public-private partnership project run by TMK and Sverdlovsk Region Government, with Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s extra support. The opening of the center proved the key feature of Metallurgist’s Day celebrations in Polevskoy. The solemn ceremony was attended by Deputy Head of the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 21, 2016. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development issued 21,600 Active bank cards in the five months of 2016 (up 17.2% on one year earlier). The bank’s press service explains the rang of the options this card type provides got updated in December. The changes involved a 3% increase in the cash-back amount when the card is used to pay for one’s shopping at pharmacies and filling stations. As a result, over 40m RUR have been transferred to customers’ accounts as cash-back payments since the start of the year. According to the UBRD Card Management Director

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 21, 2016. Smartphones now make 70% of the telecommunications provider MegaFon’s sales, the company press service reports. Interestingly. most of these are Android-based makes. According to the company’s performance-improving applications rating, Clean Master (cleans old cookies, cache, logs, history, processes and much else besides) proved the most popular product. The app also turns off the running programs that make a phone heat up too much, indicates the disc space other apps and their cache requires, and speeds up games. Antivirus software comes second on the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2016. Over 1,000 breaches of current legislation have been registered in the course of Sverdlovsk Region Capital Repairs Program implementation since the start of the year, local public prosecution authorities report. The officials in charge of supervising the capital repairs and reconstruction of apartment buildings have been issued more than two hundred warnings, and seventy-six people had to face disciplinary liability. Forty-seven protests have been issued against illegal normative acts, seventy three claims have been placed with courts, and fifteen people

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2016. According to HeadHunter’s recent research findings, 90% of Yekaterinburg-based students and college graduates are planning to work this summer; three years ago, the figure stood at 80%. ‘Just like three years ago, most of these young people intend to find something based on their qualifications, while every one in ten is going to work as a salesperson. Every one in four doesn’t yet know what kind of job they will be able to find,’ HeadHunter’s press service says. The number of respondents confident of finding a job very easily went down from 15% in 2013 to

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2016. Two workers of ChTPZ Group’s Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) have recently been awarded the Order of Friendship after a decree to this effect was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The solemn awarding ceremony was held at Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District’s office, the Group’s press service reports. ‘One order went to head of PNTZ Pipe-Welding Department Evgeny Ilyin, who has worked at the plant for thirty years now. Ilyin is also the chair of our improvement proposal council, so he supervised

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation is currently holding the corporate stage of the WorldSkills Championship in Welding Technologies, the company press service reports. The competition is taking place at Nizhniy Tagil Metal Treatment School, the corporation’s SCR partner. The winners are going to represent Ural Vagon Zavod at WorldSkills Hi Tech in Yekaterinburg this November. Ten employees of the corporation’s member enterprises (including Ural Transport Machine-Building Design Office, Ural Vagon Zavod’s head plant, Uralcryomash, Plant 9, and Uraltransmash) are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 20, 2016. Russian Institute of Directors got Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s corporate governance practices re-evaluated based on an updated National Corporate Governance Rating methodology. According to the company press service, the corporation’s corporate governance rating went up to 5++ (Average Corporate Governance Practices) as a result. ‘Corporate governance improvements based on the best global practices are part of our roadmap to privatize federally owned shares of the business,’ the press service says. When re-evaluating Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s CG

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2016. Sverdlovsk Region’s annual industrial production index declined by 8.3% in June 2016 compared with one year earlier, Sverdlovskstat reports. At the same time, the IPI rose by 4.9% in the first half of 2016 against January-June 2015 and by 13.8% in June 2016 against May 2016.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2016. Ural Airlines had to cancel all of its Turkey-bound flights, the air carrier’s press service reports. ‘Given the challenging political situation in Turkey as well as based on Rosaviation’s instructions, Ural Airlines have to cancel all of its Turkey-bound flights,’ the press service says. Passengers with tickets for flights to Antalya or Bodrum will be reimbursed and get their money back. Refunds are available from where the tickets were originally booked. In the meantime, tickets for the south-bound flights to be operated in the early fall are now

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2016. ChTPZ Group, Pervouralsk Metallurgical School (PMK), and Pervouralsk Council signed a cooperation agreement at the Innoprom International Industrial Exhibition in Yekaterinburg. The agreement aims to help gauge industrial enterprises’ demand for vocational school-leavers, the company press service reports. The agreement was signed by ChTPZ Group Director-General Alexander Grubman, Mayor of Pervouralsk Alexei Dronov, and PMK acting Director Elena Yugfeld. The three parties agreed to draw up a list of blue-collar jobs that Pervouralsk enterprises are likely

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) got its analytical center certified for atmospheric monitoring and re-certified for water control and dust-catching equipment monitoring, EVRAZ Holding Ural’s press office reports. According to the certification body’s auditors, EVRAZ NTMK’s analytical center meets all the requirements set out by the GOST ISO/MEK 17025 general standard for testing labs. In order to get certified, the plant’s three labs had to carry out a series of tests under the auditors’ supervision. They took air and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 19, 2016. Students from Bauman Moscow State Technical University’s Track-Mounted Vehicle Department SM 9 went on a two-week internship at Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s Ural Transport Machine-Building Design Office, the company press service reports. Back in the Soviet times, this university’s graduates had to come to work at the plant within the framework of their tuition-funding contract with the government. Quite few of them are still employed with the company, so the design office is hoping to resume this kind of cooperation with the college and to ensure an