July 8, 2013. A cooperation agreement will be signed by the Ministry for Industry & Innovational Policies of the Republic of Bashkortostan and Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Industry & Science; this will be done during the 4th Ural International Industry & Innovations Exhibition/Forum Innoprom 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Government Press Service & Information Administration reports that both parties are interested in expanding their bilateral cooperation, and the agreement will set out the directions of working together in trade, economics, production, and scientific and

July 8, 2013. Yekaterinburg will once again become a venue for international symposiums this year. On July 10-12, 2013, the Global Mind Symposium and a Ural-Africa Russian-African Economic Forum will be held in the Urals’ capital, the press officer of Yekaterinburg Administration reports. The forum will be attended by the representatives of some Black Continent republics: Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Djibouti, Congo, Togo, and Uganda. About 80 voting delegates of the BIE have so far confirmed their coming to the Global Mind Symposium as well; these are ambassador and high-profile diplomats from the

July 8, 2013. As Sinara-Transport Machines has large-scale plans to implement a number of transport machine-building projects and the market situation is quite favorable for the holding’s development, two new companies were added to it on July 1, 2013: OOO STM Management Company (OO UC STM) and OOO STM Trading House (OOO TD STM). The companies were set up by Sinara Group and Sinara-Transport Machines, STM press service reports. Sinara-Transport Machines BOD appointed Evgeniy Gritsenko the holding’s Director-General. Gritsenko used to be First Deputy DG and Sinara Group Executive Director. The

July 5, 2013. An audit aimed at checking the company’s compliance with the European Directive 97/23/EG and AD 2000 W0/TRD 100 technical requirements for the production of pressure-operated pipes and certification audit for compliance with the ЕС №305/2011 regulations as of March 9, 2011 (replacing the European Directive 89/106/ЕЕС for the production of construction pipes) was completed successfully at Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (a member of ChTPZ Group). The plant has already got certified for compliance with the European Directive 89/106/ЕЕС earlier, the enterprise’s press service reports.

July 5, 2013. Remote payment services keep ‘luring’ customers away from the brick-and-mortar branches. Being aware of the fact that one can now handle all of the bank transactions via one’s phone and computer motivated users to switch to e-banking en masse, VUZ-Bank’s website states. The increase in the number of e-banking and m-banking users was not left unheeded by VUZ-Bank, which offers customers its e-Life and Life-Mobile services – a common resource for all the member banks of Life Financial Group. An e-banking option is now automatically included in the package when a customer gets a

July 5, 2013. A museum dedicated to the history of Seversky metallurgical industry workers’ camping site was opened at Gorodok Solntsa, a children’s summer camp run by Seversky Pipe Plant, the enterprise’s press service reports. ‘The idea to piece together all the exhibits relating to Gorodok Solntsa’s fifty-year history took root in the mind of long-service employees about a year ago, when they visited the camp during the anniversary celebrations. Workers from Severskaya Blast Furnace Museum decided to make this idea a reality and suggested setting up a traveling exhibition,’ the press

July 5, 2013. Ural Federal University students came 16th in the ACM-ICPC World Computer Programming Championship in Saint Petersburg. The team of students from Saint Petersburg National University of Information Technologies, Mechanics & Optics won, Yekaterinburg’s official website states. 119 teams from 36 different countries took part in the final rounds of the championship. Russia put forward 15 teams. The UFU was represented by students Olga Soboleva, Yegor Shchelkonogov, Oleg Dolgorukov, and their coach, a post-graduate student from UFU Algebra & Discrete Mathematics Department

July 5, 2013. A special training lab with simulators for hot-roll mill operators was launched at Sinara Pipe Plant (SinTZ, a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company). The lab, fitted with the entire package of software and equipment needed, is located in the administrative building of Pipe-Drawing Department 2 (V-2), the enterprise’s press service says. The new lab has six simulators that imitate the working conditions of operators of sizing mills, reeling machines, piercing mills, and three types of longitudinal rolling mills. The devices completely emulate the hot-roll production line of the

July 4, 2013. In January-May 2013, the natural population growth in Yekaterinburg was 1,493 people. 8,179 people were born and 6,686 people passed away. As for Sverdlovsk Region, 20,040 people were born and 20,408 people passed away, so the natural decline in the population was 368 people. As of January 1, 2013, Yekaterinburg’s population stood at 1,429,400 people, which is 46,200 (3.3%) more than this figure was at the end of the All-Russian Census of 2010. According to the data provided by Sverdlovskstat, the natural decline in the population in Sverdlovsk Region was 768 people: 14,677

July 4, 2013. Yekaterinburg Oktyabrsky District court pronounced its sentence upon a 29-year-old Alexei Zagainov, who had tried to avoid paying customs duties when importing 9m RUR worth of jewelry to Russia. The press service of the Ural Investigative Division of Russia’s Investigative Committee reports that the accused bought a number of diamonds (total weight: 195.34 carats), sapphires (total weight: 832.51 carats), over 9,000 cut non-precious stones, and a necklace at Bangkok Gems & Jewelry Fair in Thailand in September 2012. He decided not to declare the import of these purchases

July 4, 2013. 30.2% less housing (-775,000 sq m) was commissioned in Ural Federal District in the first three months of 2013 than in the first quarter of 2012, Rosstat reports. Housing construction process was most dynamic in Tyumen Region (including Khanty-Mansiysky and Yamalo-Nenetsky Autonomous Districts) and in Chelyabinsk Region. 370,300 and 251,200 sq m worth of housing was commissioned there, respectively. The share of Ural Federal District in the total amount of housing commissioned in Russia was 7.7%. Private builders put up a total of 338,100 sq m worth of detached houses. All in

July 4, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region division of the Federal Service of Court Officers declared 21,176 local residents travel-banned, as they owe a total of 11.519bn RUR to private individuals and/or organizations. All in all, the local residents have 39.373bn RUR worth of debts that are now being processed by the Service, its website states. The bans on going abroad made 609 locals pay their debts – these amounted to 178.2m RUR, the Service reports. A lot of these debtors are people who don’t pay their children’s alimony: these come to 7,718 people out of all those debtors who have been

July 4, 2013. As of July 1, 2013, a square meter of real estate on Yekaterinburg’s existing homes market came to 70,467 RUR. Ural Chamber of Real Estate reports that this figure has remained virtually the same for the last four weeks and only fluctuated within a range of 0.1%. In fact, the figure hasn’t changed much since the beginning of the year. The increase was about 0.5%, and most homes were sold within four to four and a half months of being put up to sale. Over the last month, prices have been going both up and down in the different segments of this market. Downtown, the city’s most

July 3, 2013. The FIFA’s Secretary-General Jérôme Valcke praised Russia’s success in preparation for the world football championship of 2018 and said, ‘Nothing needs to be changed in this smooth working process,’ ITAR-TASS reports. ‘A group of Russian delegates were staying in Brazil during the Confederation Cup, and they learned about the organization of contests. The delegation was headed by the World Cup 2018 Coordination Committee Alexei Sorokin,’ Valcke told the news agency. The FIFA’s Secretary-General pointed out that the preparations for the championship in Russia would be done in

July 3, 2013. Ural Airlines is offering a special price for its Moscow-Podgorica-Moscow flights. Starting July 3, 2013, a round trip ticket will be available for ?190 and a one-way ticket can be bought for ?150 (excluding the fees). The ticket sale was launched today. What’s more, a 90% discount is offered for passengers who are under 2 years old. Ural Airlines’ flights from Moscow to Podgorica and back are operated every Saturday using a comfortable Airbus liner that has both economy and business class sections. Montenegro is a little jewel of the Adriatic. It has its wide, snow-white

July 3, 2013. The Federal Financial Markets Service (FSFR) registered a case when insider information was used unlawfully by one of Concern Kalina’s top managers; the information had to do with the company’s shares. The service is going to forward these files to the law-enforcement authorities in the nearest future, Head of the FSFR Dmitri Pankin’s blog states. ‘In the fall of 2011, many of the stock market players, the media, and the business community representatives noticed that Concern Kalina’s shares went up; this was just before Unilever RUS bought a controlling shareholding in the

July 3, 2013. Yaroslavl Ore Mining Company (OOO YarGRK) stopped producing ore and doing repair jobs on its premises in Maritime Territory, RIA Novosti refers to the company’s trade union representative as saying. The representative said it was done in order to cut personnel expenses, so 126 employees had to go on unplanned vacations. The stoppage is expected to last until July 31, but the company’s management might decide to prolong this. OOO YarGRK is Russia’s only producer and supplier of fluorite concentrate that is necessary for making primary aluminum. RUSAL came to own this company in

July 3, 2013. Only 38 hotels in Yekaterinburg have gone through a government certification procedure, which makes up 36% of the total number of hotels in the city. As for Sverdlovsk Region on the whole, only 10% of local hotels have been certified so far. ‘This year, two more hotels applied for a voluntary government certification procedure, thus the number of certified hotels will come to 38 hotels by the end of the year, including 2 five-star ones, 12 four-star ones, 20 three-star ones, 2 two-star ones, and 2 mini-hotels,’ Chairman of Yekaterinburg Council Consumer Services Committee Maxim

July 2, 2013. Over the last month, ventilating equipment has been assembled, 110-kilowatt lead-in insulators have been installed, and pull pits have been assembled at the 80-megawatt Sportivnaya Substation, Yekaterinburg Electric Grid Company reports. Now this new addition to Yekaterinburg energy supply network located in Mashinnaya St-Tsiolkovsky St will supply electric power to the locals living in Mashinnaya St, Shchors St, some parts of Botanichesky District, and Southern Coach Terminal. What is more, the new substation will offer new opportunities for technological hook-up of new

July 2, 2013. A delegation from the Russian-Arab Business Council will take part in the Innoprom 2013 exhibition in Yekaterinburg on July 11-14, 2013. The Council’s Deputy Director Vladislav Lutsenko will also hold negotiations with the representatives of Sverdlovsk Region business community, the press service of Sverdlovsk Region Government reports. The agenda of the exhibition covers for a round table discussion on the development of the industrial infrastructure and the prospects of Russia-the Arab world cooperation. Talks will be given by the representatives of the Arab countries