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,

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 12, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation presented the final and the most spectacular part of its military history route Voentur, the company press service reports. The event started at the city’s first Park Inn by Radisson Hotel (which got four-starred recently), where prospective tourists will stay. Then the presentation moved to Staratel, a shooting range where the international Russia Arms Expo exhibition takes place every two years. Visitors to the presentation could test the Russian armed vehicles’ potential for themselves by riding the tank T 90C. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 11, 2016. The number of claims related to violation of consumers’ rights which were placed with authorities in Sverdlovsk Region last year went up by 67% compared with the year 2014, Rospotrebnadzor’s report states. All in all, 55 claims were filed in 2015 compared with 33 in 2014. 76% (42) of these claims had to do with sale of non-food items. The rest had to do with participatory share lending construction projects, sale of food items, and consumer services. 84% of claims had certain private individuals as plaintiffs, while 16% were filed in the interests of an

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 11, 2016. 78% of Yekaterinburg residents are planning to keep working after they reach retirement age, HeadHunter’s survey results indicate. Their main motivation is that the expected pension is not going to be big enough to get by. The number of respondents with plans to keep working is the highest in Fossils Development and Civil Service sectors. Nearly every one in ten respondents (9%) are, on the other hand, planning to retire before they are eligible for a pension. They intend to rely on incomes coming from letting places, interest rates on bank deposits, or

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 11, 2016. Sixty-five lethal production accidents occurred in Sverdlovsk Region last year, five less than one year previously, Head of Sverdlovsk Region Labor & Employment Department’s Labor Protection & Social Partnership division Alexei Melnichuk said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘Our production accident statistics are gradually getting better: there were 70 lethal accidents registered in 2014 and 65 in 2015, as well as 407 and 353 production accidents where people got seriously injured, respectively. This improvement has to do not only with the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 11, 2016.1,740 people have been made redundant in Sverdlovsk Region since the start of the year 2016, Head of Sverdlovsk Region Labor & Employment Department’s Labor Protection & Social Partnership division Alexei Melnichuk said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg. ‘1,740 people have been laid off as of April 6, of whom 842 people found new employment with the job centers’ help and 366 people got registered as unemployed. Also, slightly under 4% of these people went into retirement,’ Melnichuk said. According to the official, Sverdlovsk Region’s official

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 11, 2016. Electromachine (a member enterprise of Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation based in Chelyabinsk) intends to cut costs related to purchase of goods, work, and services while remaining financially stable this year, the company press service reports. ‘Our goal is to spend the company’s funds carefully and in the most efficient way possible and go down on operation costs. We must reduce our outgoings and inexpedient spending on a daily basis,’ says the company Economics Director Tatiana Potlova. This year, an ad hoc committee chaired by Technical Director Pavel

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 8, 2016. The overall amount of Yekaterinburg housing companies’ unpaid natural gas bills rose by 24% last year compared with the year 2014 and reached nearly 99m RUR, Yekaterinburggas reports. As of March 1, 2016, the companies’ accounts receivable came to 108.7m RUR (up 10% on the start of the year). Yekaterinburggaz First Deputy Director-General Alexander Malkin says Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Standart, Ural-ST, ARDO, and Radomir-Invest actually pay for the entire amount of natural gas supplied to them every month, and it is due to these housing companies that the

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 8, 2016. Yekaterinburg residents typically look for jobs on the Internet, Zarplata.ru’s research findings indicate. According to the website’s survey, 79% of respondents believe using recruitment websites and submitting their applications there is the most efficient way to find a job, 67% think the strategy is to submit one’s CV online in the hope that an employer will get interested, and 40% prefer looking for job ads on a potential employer’s website and sending their CVs at the provided email address. The more conservative job-searching strategies came next: 28%

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 8, 2016. The number of driving schools has been going down in Sverdlovsk Region over the last few years; the decrease reached 16.8% last year compared with late 2014 and 7.3% in the first quarter of 2016 against late 2015. Deputy Head of Examinations, Surveillance & Motorized Vehicles Registration Department at Sverdlovsk Region division of Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry State Road Safety Inspectorate Ivan Malgin said at a press conference in Yekaterinburg that there were 339 driving schools in the constituency at the end of 2014 and only 304 schools a year

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 8, 2016. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant/ChTPZ landed a contract with Nord Stream 2 AG, the pipeline operator, for the delivery of large-diameter pipes for the construction of two branches of the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline, the company press service reports. The company won the tender in March 2016. Under the terms of the contract, the plant will provide Nord Stream 2 AG with 596,000,000 kg of 1,153-mm LDPs (wall width 30.9mm and 34.6mm) with internal and external corrosion-resistant coating. All the pipes will be manufactured at the plant’s Vysota 239 department. The

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 8, 2016. Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s head plant’s Volchansk subsidiary developed and adopted a product quality enhancement program, with the goal of achieving zero percentage of faulty items by 2018, the corporation’s press service reports. One of the steps taken was setting up the so-called ‘quality clubs’ whose task is to elaborate and introduce proposals on how to reduce the number of faulty items through improvements in technological processes and better organization of work and production. Starting from 2013, the plant has been implementing its In-Built

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 7, 2016. Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo Airport (a member of Regional Airports Holding) offered its services to 149,500 passengers on international flights last year; this was as much as 100,000 people less than one year previously, the airport’s press service reports. ‘The decrease in traffic primarily had to do with cancelled Egypt-bound flights, as 52,000 travelers went there last year alone,’ the press service says. At the same time, the number of passengers on domestic flights actually rose, with more new national destinations offered by air carriers and more flights

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 7, 2016. Yekaterinburg residents’ unpaid housing bills amounted to 4.518bn RUR on March 1, 2016, the city council’s press service reports. ‘To make the debtors pay their bills, housing companies are forced to stop providing them with heat, power, or water supply. So far, power supply has been limited in nearly 32,000 homes, sewage services in 676 homes, and hot water in 19 homes. In January and February, 4,406 dwellings had no electric power supply, 24 no hot water supply, and 138 no sewage services,’ the press service says.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 7, 2016. SverdNIIkhimmash (a member enterprise of Rosatom’s Atomenergomash) presented its advanced water conditioning and demineralization technologies at the 3d International Hi Tech Sustainable Development NDExpo 2016 Forum, the company press service reports. The forum is held in Moscow on April 5-7, 2016. The event is coordinated by Rosatom Corporation and co-organized by OOO Atomexpo. This year, over forty Russian and foreign companies are taking part in the conference. The forum’s agenda covered a round table presentation on water conditioning and