Sverdlovsk Region’s gross domestic product is expected to rise by 20% to 25%, was Vice Premier of the regional government Alexander Petrov’s forecast at today’s briefing. ‘The industrial growth reached 12% in the eight months of 2012. The optical and the ferrous metallurgical industries are doing quite well. In 2012, the GDP will grow by 20-25%,’ Petrov said. Meanwhile, the Vice Premier pointed out that prices went down in the metallurgical industry in the eight months of the year: this is true, for example, of nickel and aluminum prices. ‘Russia joining the WTO will be a lot of help to the

Russian banks keep making more profits, even though this growth isn’t as fast as during the previous periods. According to RBC.Rating, the consolidated net profit of 500 Russian banks that were featured in the rating for the first half of the year came to nearly 402bn RUR, which is only 14.5% more than on July 1, 2011, SKB-Bank’s press service reports. However, some banks’ indicators are many times better than the median figures. For one, SKB-Bank’s net profit rose by over two times and came to 1.787bn RUR. This brought the bank on the list of Russia’s top 25 most profitable lending

Ural Airlines is launching a new Moscow-Nukus-Moscow flight on September 12. Flights will be operated every Wednesday. Tickets for the flight can be booked via the air carrier’s official website www.uralairlines.com and in the booking offices, the airline’s press service reports. All of Ural Airlines’ flights are operated using the modern and comfortable Airbus A320 airlines. Nukus is the center of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan (a part of Uzbekistan) and an important spot in the country’s administrative, economic, and cultural development. The city is surrounded by deserts on

Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant Uraltrac, which joined the International Pipeline Contractors Association IPLOСA last year, will present its produce at the organization’s annual convention, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service refers to the company’s Far Abroad Sales Directorate as saying. The forum, to be attended by the world’s leading producers and contractors in this market segment, will take place in Istanbul in mid-September. The presentation by Chelyabinsk tractor manufacturers will let the potential customers take a closer look at the company’s potential. Companies from North and

Verkhnyaya Sinyachikha-based NIGMAS will pay everything it owes its workers after the company’s primary product, pig iron, has been sold,’ Vice Premier of Sverdlovsk Region government Alexander Petrov saidt at today’s briefing in Yekaterinburg. At the moment, the plant’s former employees haven’t been compensation for the skipped vacations and haven’t received any severance pay when they were made redundant. ‘The bulk of NIGMAS’s debts has been paid off. The only remaining debt is the compensations, which comes to about 11m RUR,’ Petrov said. Moscow Arbitration Court declared NIGMAS, the owner

The rating agency Expert RA rated the business solvency of Sberinvestbank at A (High Business Solvency Level), with Stable rating outlook. The Stable outlook means the rating is highly likely to remain the same in the medium term, the agency explains. The bank’s rating is positively affected by the nice balance of its assets and liabilities in the short term, great level of issued loans guarantees, and low credit and stock risks for the securities portfolio. Among some other positive factors are the satisfactory quality of the lending portfolio, access to the sources of additional cash

The public prosecution authorities took administrative action against the director of Chelyabinsk-based McDonald’s for arrears of wages owed to five teenagers who worked at the café during their summer holidays,’ the authorities report. An inspection revealed that the terms of wage-payment were violated when the five underage workers resigned from their part-time jobs. The restaurant’s director is now involved in an administrative lawsuit, with charges based on Article 5.27 (part 1) of the Russian Federation Administrative Offense Code. An order was issued to compensate the minors for the

Sinara Pipe Plant (a part of Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK)) re-built and upgraded a branch of its medical unit in the pipe workers’ district of Kamensk-Uralsky. This was done within the framework of the company’s investment program, TMK’s press service reports. The solemn opening ceremony was attended by Mayor of Kamensk-Uralsky Mikhail Astakhov, the eparch of the local diocese His Grace Sergiy, the Bishop of Kamensk-Uralsky and Alapayevsk, the Managing Director of Sinara Pipe Plant Sergey Chetverikov, the plant’s HR Director Vyacheslav Gagarinov, a representative of the company’s

The deputy director of Vodokanal-NT and the legal entity of the same name are now involved in an administrative lawsuit for the contamination of the River Vyya; they could be fined to 3,000-4,000 RUR and 30,000-40,000 RUR, respectively, the spokesperson for Sverdlovsk Region prosecution authorities says. Vodokanal-NT offers services for the sewage network management to the following enterprises: KDV Nizhniy Tagil, Nizhniy Tagil Cold Storage Facility 1, Nizhiy Tagil Refrigerator, and Interatlantik –NTRK. It was determined that Interatlantik –NTRK dumped some waste water within the protected

The number of hunger-strikers at AMUR Car Factory has gone up to 100 people, the Novouralsk-based factory’s former worker Irina Zaprudina told UrBC. The ‘second wave’ of hunger-strikers started at AMUR today. The ‘first wave’ involved 16 people who went on a public hunger-strike. About thirty people were on hunger-strike at home. As was expected, those who went on hunger-strike in public were paid all the money that was their due. According to the former employees, the debt came to 1.5m RUR, according to some other resources, the figure came to as much as over 30m RUR. ‘The number of

In the eight months of 2012, over 10bn cubic meters of natural gas were consumed in Sverdlovsk Region. Last year, over 18bn cubic meters were consumed in the region, Vice Premier of Sverdlovsk Region Government Sergey Zyryanov said at a meeting with the heads and employees of local gas enterprises. The meeting was held at Sverdlovsk Region Government building, and the attendees were greeted on behalf of Governor Evgeny Kuivashev and the government by Sergey Zyryanov and the Minister for Energy & Communal Housing Services Nikolai Smirnov. ‘The Governor and the region’s government have

Expert RA, a rating agency, affirmed Uralsib Non-State Retirement Fund’s reliability rating at A: ‘high reliability rating’; the rating outlook was changed from Stable to Positive. The ‘Positive’ outlook means the rating is highly likely to go up in the short term. While looking into Uralsib’s rating status, the agency pointed out the great scale of accumulated investment profitability of customers’ retirement savings (profitability came to 17%, with some adjustments for the inflation rate, between December 31, 2009 and March 31, 2012) and the great scale of accumulated profitability of the

The general committee of Russian Red Cross thanked Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation for helping the victims of a recent flood in Krasnodar Territory. The organization expressed its gratitude for ‘the admirable achievements in contributing to humanism and mercy’. Following the Krymsk tragedy, Uralvagonzavod administration and the trade union committee coordinated the collection of humanitarian aid. Thousands of workers donated clothes, medicines, food, water, baby food, and much else besides. The trade union committee purchased some blankets and sheets for the flood

Yekaterinburg was only given the 49th position in the rating of Russian cities with the happiest residents, whereas the capital of a neighboring region Tyumen was one of the top 10, RBC daily reports. The monitoring agency NewsEffector conducted a research on the happiness levels of people living in the Russian Federation constituencies. The research findings indicate that the happiness index for cities with a population of over one million people is not so great after all. Saint Petersburg, for one, was only given the 16th position, Yekaterinburg was given the 49th position, and Novosibirsk

Russian Copper Company (RMK) presented schoolbags to 200 first-graders of Karabash. On Friday, August 31, the Knowledge Day took off in Karabash with a play called the Punch Carnival. ‘Our online art school Karabash_ka has been operating for a year now; this is a project by Russian Copper Company that the schoolchildren of Karabash take a very active part in. This summer, Respect, a children’s theater, was opened in town, and Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Moscow’s best teachers are now training children in the ABCs of drama. We will keep doing our best to create the most creativity- and

The Russian Student Union’s complaints regarding Ural Federal University are ungrounded, UFU Rector Viktor Koksharov said at a press conference today. ‘No applicants or students submitted any complaints at the end of our enrollment campaign. No claims were placed with the public prosecution authorities, either. I believe the Russian Student Union simply misunderstood our enrollment rules, there was some interpretation mistake involved,’ Koksharov said. Now the Educational Services Consumers’ Rights Protection Society and the Russian Student Union found a number of violations in the 2012

Passenger car sales rose by 21% in Yekaterinburg in the first half of the year. At the same time, the sales of certain brands are actually on the decrease, Auto-Dealer-Yekaterinburg, an analytical agency, reports. According to their data, 56,365 new passenger cars were sold in Yekaterinburg in January-July 2012, which was 21%, or 9,801 cars, better than a year earlier. In July, 8,924 cars were sold in the city, which was 23%, or 1,654 cars, more than in July 2011. The agency’s press release states that even though Lada is definitely the best-selling make on Yekaterinburg market, this brand’s

Seversky Pipe Plant (a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company) coordinated a charity auction for kids whose parents can’t afford to get them all the things needed to start a school year. The auction was coordinated by the Women’s Council of the plant’s trade union, with some support from the company’s press service. Among the lots put up to auction were pictures from the photo exhibition dedicated to the Metallurgist’s Day, crafts by the plant’s female workers and pre-schoolers, and fruit and vegetables grown by the workers. The production departments’ trade union committees, heads of the

The bonds of Kamensk-Uralsky-based METCOMBANK (Series 01) were placed on MICEX’s A1 quotation list. ‘The fact that the bonds are now on the top quotation list will draw more attention to the bank’s securities and will allow us to considerably expand the number of our investors, including non-state retirement funds and insurers. The increased demand for our bonds will, in its turn, increase the securities’ liquidity,’ says METCOMBANK Chairman of the Supervisory Board Dmitri Torbenko. The IPO of the 2bn-RUR bond issue took place on April 12, 2012. The bank launched its 3-year bonds through

A school of Skolkovo Network might be introduced in Academic District of Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Region Education Minister Yuri Biktuganov says. Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev approved of Yekaterinburg-based Coryphaeus Gymnasium 210’s experience in the field of introducing new educational standards during an All-Russian video conference dedicated to schools getting ready for the new academic year. On August 29, Governor Evgeny Kuivashev took part in the conference as well. Coryphaeus’s experience makes one consider the concept of a Skolkovo Network school in Sverdlovsk Region. The concept