Experts from the Plenipotentiary Representation of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District looked into the area’s socio-economic development in the two months of 2007 to find out that the better part of these months’ success has been due to impressive industrial growth of Tyumen and Chelyabinsk Regions. The regions’ manufacturers are doing particularly well, so is the housing business: 447,400 square meters of dwellings have been commissioned since the beginning of the year, which is twice the amount of January-February 2007. 5,040 apartments have been put up altogether compared

According to First Deputy Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Vladimir Dyatlov, the area’s industrial production output grew by 11.8% in January-March 2007 compared to the first quarter of 2006. Machine-building industry did particularly well; the production of trucks rose by 71%, that of tractors by 65%. The agricultural output went up by 10%, freight turnover of haulage enterprises increased by 16.7%, the volume of communication services soared by 39.4%. The region’s profit-yielding companies made 17.2bn RUR in January-February 2007, which exceeds the figures for two months of 2006 by 65.2%.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel and Governor of Chukotka Roman Abramovich visited Metallurgical Industrial Complex of Nizhniy Tagil (part of Evraz Group) on April 12, 2007. Mr. Abramovich arrived in Yekaterinburg at the personal invitation of Mr. Rossel. The two governors met at the official residence of Governor of Sverdlovsk Region, went to the local Cathedral-on-Blood and then to Uralochka (a sports palace) and relocated to Nizhniy Tagil afterwards. In the course of their visit to Metallurgical Industrial Complex, CEO Alexei Kushnarev told them about the ongoing reconstruction

‘Foreign travelers hardly ever come to Yekaterinburg for sightseeing purposes, it’s mainly business that brings them here. Almost no one comes to relax or check out our historic landmarks,’ Yulia Pantileenko of Palma Tours Travel Agency said to UrBC. ‘Our hotels are actually overpriced: it will cost you less to stay in Saint Petersburg (which is extremely rich in places of interest),’ she said. In the meantime, Russian Union of Travel Industry reports that the number of travelers from abroad might go down 10% this year. The disproportion between the tourist activity within and outside the

Plenipotentiary Representation of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District presented its findings on the area’s socio-economic development in two months of 2007. Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District Petr Latyshev says the data indicate that the population incomes have been growing; so have the investments, industrial production, housing construction, and retail trade. The unemployment rate is still below the Russian average; so are arrears of wages, mortality rate, and the spread of the so-called social diseases. The industrial

Russian Copper Company managed to raise its blister copper production output to 90,000 tons a year in 2006 (or by 2.1 times), reports the company’s press officer. The total output of the enterprise in 2003 (the year it was set up) only came to 75,000 tons of copper and 10,000 tons of copper wire rod a year, but by 2006, Russian Copper Company more than doubled these figures (185,000 tons and 105,000 tons, respectively), and they are expected to reach 250,000 tons and 200,000 tons in 2007. The company is now using the whole potential of all of its production facilities

One of Ural Airlines’ strategic goals is to constantly expand the company’s global flight coverage not only from Yekaterinburg but some other cities as well (for instance, Chelyabinsk, Saint Petersburg, and Moscow). Two new flights were introduced on April 7, 2007. Every Thursday, a TU 154M aircraft will take its passengers from Yekaterinburg to Gyumri, Armenia, and every Tuesday and Saturday, another TU 154M will transfer the company’ clients from Domodedovo airport of Moscow to Kulyab, Tajikistan, and back. The plane leaves Moscow at 10.25 AM (arrival in Kulyab at 3.30 PM) and takes off in

Miel Real Estate is planning to invest $70 million in construction of Academic district of Yekaterinburg. Deputy Development Director of RENOVA Stroy Group (the project owner) Evgeniy Krasikov reports the joint investment agreement will be signed in May 2007. This new district is to appear in the south-west of Yekaterinburg and is expected to occupy 2,500 hectares of land, with 1,200 hectares covered by forests and parks and 1,300 hectares used for putting up over 9 million square meters of housing and over 4.2 million square meters of buildings meant for commercial and socially important

Yekaterinburg Duma committee for budget and economic policies looked into the city’s budget administration in 2006 to find out that last year’s revenues amounted to 15 billion RUR (which is 8.8% better than the original target figures); round about 4 billion RUR were allocated by the upper-level budgets; taxpaying local enterprises failed to transfer about 1 billion RUR worth of taxes. The budget expenditures reached 13.4 billion RUR, which falls short of the original target figures by 1.4%. Most of this was spent on education (34.5%), housing and maintenance facilities (28.4%), healthcare

IES-Multiutilities Ltd. received 499,282,000 RUR worth of payments in March, so the remaining amount of accounts receivable now comes to 1,421,246,000 RUR, reports the company’s press officer. The enterprise is now trying to get the rest of the debt through power outages, signing individual agreements with each particular consumer, and placing all the documents with the court. 1,768 claims worth 338.708,000 RUR are now being processed.

According to the potential demand analysis done by their experts, low-rise buildings in special suburban villages enjoy the greatest demand in Sverdlovsk Region, reports Yarmarka Real Estate. People are looking for social homogeneity of the area (which can be achieved by focusing on first class and premium quality dwellings), increased levels of security (such as centralized guarding system combined with security alarms in the houses), a nearby supermarket, a playground for children, and a medical facility, at least. As the market develops and so does the supply, customers will naturally

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel checked out all the sites meant for transportation and logistics centers in Yekaterinburg, Verknyaya Pyshma, and Berezovskiy on April 11, 2007, reports the spokesperson for the Governor. These centers are crucial to Yekaterinburg since the city is located at the intersection of Russia’s major transportation routes. The Governor believes if the number of modern storehouses went up dramatically in the next two or three years, all of the country’s freight flows would go through Sverdlovsk Region; this is why the region needs several terminals. Eurasia

X5 Retail Group N.V. decided to set up a joint venture with Pyaterochka owner in Chelyabinsk; the new company is supposed to merge assets of Pyaterochka supermarket chains in Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg. X5 Retail Group N.V. is going to own 51% of assets, Pyaterochka owner will get 49% which the former will eventually buy out in two installments: 24% will be acquired in 2008 and 25% in 2009. X5 Retail Group N.V. will contribute 26% of Pyaterochka’s assets in Chelyabinsk and 100% of Pyaterochka’s assets in Yekaterinburg to the new company. Chelyabinsk-based Pyaterochka owner will contribute

Regional deputies met to discuss the problems and developmental prospects of transport infrastructure in Sverdlovsk Region at the request of Sverdlovsk Region Duma Committee for Industrial, Agricultural, and Environmental Management Policies. One of the reports was presented by Director of GAZ United Engineering Center Enrico Damiano, who spoke about the performance of GAZ, Russia’s largest producer of commercial transport whose share of the market comes to 70% or 75%. Mr. Damiano said GAZ-made buses fit for 8 and 13 people had been produced since 1996, with some changes introduced to the

‘So far, the employees of Zdravnik Pharmaceutical Chain haven’t been told that the company is going to be acquired by 36.6, a large federal player,’ the company’s Marketing Director Olga Pushkarskaya said to UrBC. ‘Even if the chain owners reached any business-selling agreements, there has been no official address to employees to that extent, though it may appear at the end of the week,’ Ms Pushkarskaya observed. In the meantime, RBC daily reported on April 11, 2007 that 36.6 was about to acquire Yekaterinburg-based Zdravnik Pharmaceutical Chain.

The auction aimed at selling a share holding of SverdlovEnergoSbyt currently owned by RAO UES of Russia will take place on May 22, 2007, reports the company’s press officer. The opening bid has been set at 1.15 billion RUR by the Assessment Committee under RAO UES of Russia’s Board of Directors. The share holding consists of 341,718,216 ordinary registered uncertified shares with face value of .0086 RUR each (the serial number is 1-01-55080-Е). This holding amounts to 49% of SverdlovEnergoSbyt’s authorized capital and has to be sold in a single package. Applicants are to submit their forms to

Regional deputies met to discuss the problems and developmental prospects of transport infrastructure in Sverdlovsk Region at the request of Sverdlovsk Region Duma Committee for Industrial, Agricultural, and Environmental Management Policies. One of the reports was presented by Duma deputy and Committee member Rinat Sadriev, who spoke on the issues related to all kinds of transport, including cars, airplanes, steamers, railway carriages, and the underground. Firstly, most vehicles (55% to 70%) are obsolete, which is particularly true of buses. About 70% of the region’s buses, trolley-buses,

‘Our experts rated the most popular low-rise buildings like this (in order of preference): suburban cottages under construction (26%), houses put up in the already existing suburbs (19%), town houses in low-rise building districts currently under construction (16%), new cottages located in a village or a place with different types of buildings (15%),’ reports Yarmarka Real Estate. The last type of dwellings is still quite popular, but people are already beginning to look for places in homogenously low-rise areas. ‘Apartments in small blocks of flats and town houses in low-rise building

Last year, Yekaterinburg-based retail enterprises and catering companies’ turnover came to 36 billion RUR and 1.5 billion RUR, respectively, reports the Commodities Market Committee under the city council. 60% of local retail enterprises are small businesses, with retail trade turnover per city dweller amounting to 12,545 RUR. The average pay figures in the field reached the point of 14,067 RUR in the first quarter of 2007. There are 14 international, 13 federal, and 26 regional chains in Yekaterinburg at the moment; in fact, chains make up 28% of all stores in the city. The two most popular

According to Expert Ural analytical center, SKB-Bank was the Urals and Western Siberia’s No. 1 in terms of loan portfolio growth in 2006 (given loans to natural persons only): the increase reached the point of 352%, or 4.5 times, which secured SKB-Bank a strong position among the area’s five largest banks. What’s more, the bank can boast a very low amount of bad debt or delayed payments – only 2% of all loans. SKB-Bank provided its retail clients with 4,920,500,000 RUR worth of loans in 2006, reports their press officer.