‘Multi-faceted area development will cut costs and create nice room for living,’ claims Alexander Starikov, Rector of Ural State Architectural Academy. ‘The construction of the would-be Academic district of Yekaterinburg that employs this concept will also make housing much more affordable. As is well known, the prices on the real estate market are quite speculative due to the increased demand and limited supply. Large-scale construction projects may be a solution to the problem; in addition, they comply with the top-priority national program known as Affordable and Comfortable Housing to

Yekaterinburg Consumer Services Committee alongside with some other authorities managed to remove 57 game-playing machines from the city’s kiosks and pavilions, reports Oleg Zemtsov, the spokesperson for Deputy Mayor Viktor Konteev. There were 67 such machines in town at the beginning of 2006 and, in compliance with Mr. Konteev’s decision, a removal schedule was drawn up that included 69 items, 57 of which were rid of last year. The process of doing away with the playing machines that have no permits will continue this year as well.

RUSAL has recently completed the acquisition of the majority holding of Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (Alscon), which is going to increase its aluminum output by 150,000 tons a year. Buying Alscon also means RUSAL can now create a full production cycle in this regions and expand its client network as well as enter the new markets, reports RUSAL’s press officer. The company bought a 77.5% share holding that includes a plant with the planned production capacity of 193,000 tons of aluminum annually which has an electrolysis shop, an anodic shop, and a foundry; a port on the River Imo, and

‘We use highly professional architects for Academic construction project,’ reports project manager Stanislav Pridvizhkin ‘They are now working on the landscape and the street architectural designs to make sure the would-be district has a single concept and not a motley assortment of buildings. The general image is quite important. Different parts of Academic district will be designed by different designer teams, yet all of them are going to be supervised by Valode & Pistre that deals with the general image development,’ Mr. Pridvizhkin explained.

‘It’s a bit hard to say how effective online promotion is right now, since banks usually use more than just one or two distribution channels. Given, however, the fact that plenty of people have access to the Internet at the moment, and new users join the club daily, one could expect online advertising to be affecting the viewers,’ SKB-Bank’s Deputy PR Director Denis Zverik said to UrBC. According to the data published by MindShare Interaction (a Russian advertising agency) yesterday, the total cost of online advertising in the Russian segment amounted to $187 million last year, with the

Ural Bank of Sberbank of Russia decided to become the backer of the Bank Cards for Small Businesses conference that was held at the end of February and was devoted to how one could handle accounts, services, and salary-paying routines with the help of bank cards. The event was attended by representatives of the region’s leading banks and of the federal ones, executives from insurance companies and international credit card systems, and members of Sverdlovsk Region Government. ‘The introduction of bank cards for salary-paying routines saves companies a lot of money. It cuts costs related to

The Russian Federation Minister for Education and Science Andrei Fursenko announced the results of the innovation development programs contest held among Russian colleges within the framework of the National Education Project. 40 colleges received between 200 million and 930 million RUR worth of grants, with the total investments exceeding 20 billion RUR. Each college is to get money for a particular purpose, and each of them must raise at least 20% of the budget needed independently. There were four Ural colleges among the winners, namely, Ural State University, Ural State Technical

According to the spokesperson for Ural Airlines, more than 150 tickets a day have been bought through their online booking office this February. Experts believe the figure is to go up in the nearest future. ‘No fuel fees and considerable discounts for booking and buying online make the service quite attractive,’ says Deputy Commercial Director Dmitriy Lvov. What is more, online booking routines are being constantly upgraded, which now makes it possible for Chelyabinsk-based customers as well as English- and German-speaking clients to use the service.

Sergey Dubinkin, Head of the regional division of the Russian Federation Retirement Fund, reported that 193 applications for maternal money certificates had been submitted by February 26, 2007. These must be considered within a month; then, notifications will be sent back to the applicants. The Retirement Fund is now trying to put into practice the provisions of the new law on the additional state support of families with children, reports their press officer.

Minister for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region Viktor Koksharov took part in a press conference that was hosted by TASS Ural and devoted to the preparations the region has been making for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. According to Mr. Koksharov, an ad hoc working team consisting of the Putin administration executives and representatives of a number of federal authorities has recently visited Yekaterinburg and found the city quite suitable for holding such a high-profile event. The summit has been scheduled for 2009, and by this time, the city’s

SKB-Bank set up its northernmost and easternmost offices at 68 Neftyanikov St. in Nizhnevartovsk and at 95b Sovetskaya St. in Noyabrsk. Both offices offer full range of banking services for both businesses and private individuals and welcome visitors from 9 AM to 7 PM on weekdays and from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekends (natural persons) and from 9 AM to 4 PM on weekdays (businesses). With two new additions, the number of the bank’s offices has reached the point of 61; they are located in Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Perm, Rostov, and Volgograd Regions and in Moscow, reports the bank’s press

Prices keep collapsing on the Russian stock market. As regards MICEX stock exchange, blue chips dropped in price by an average of 3% in the very first minutes of business today. The RTS index decreased by more than 1%, dropping below 1,900. Shares of LUKOIL and Surgutneftegaz decreased by over 3%, those of UralSvyazInform and Rostelecom by nearly 4%, reports RosBusinessConsulting.

Medialogia, a mass media analysis and monitoring system, published its Top 30 Most Attractively Advertised Russian Banks rating. The rating covers thirty Russian companies that got the best publicity in February 2007. Sberbank, VTB, and Gazprombank (three major players on the Russian banking market) occupy the three top positions. According to experts of Medialogia, SKB-Bank gets the 21st position, based on how much positive publicity they got and how attractive they looked, and is the only Sverdlovsk Region-based bank that hit the rating at all. The position is better than that obtained in

200 legal entities and sole traders’ businesses were suspended in 2006, Chief Justice of Sverdlovsk Region Ivan Ovcharuk announced at a press conference. Their activity had to be stopped due to violations in the field of sanitation requirements and fire safety.

A recent meeting of Ministry for International and Foreign Economic Relations of Sverdlovsk Region was devoted to evaluating the performance of the region’s international activity in 2006. Sverdlovsk Region’s foreign trade turnover went up 27.1% compared to a year earlier and amounted to $9.494 billion. The regional enterprises and organizations cooperated with 136 countries, which covers export to 114 countries and import from 110 countries. The export structure remained quite traditional: metal and metal-based goods, chemical produce, machine-building products. As regards import, these are

‘The Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit was scheduled for 2009, and by this time, a lot of projects are to have been completed, for example, new highways and road junctions as well as the first line of underground. We have allotted 1.6 billion RUR for the underground construction this year, which makes it possible to work three shifts a day,’ Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel announced at the press conference today. ‘The second runway at Koltsovo airport is to have been done by October 1, 2007. In addition, we have to focus on the construction of the City Center, Hyatt Hotel,

Large-scale construction projects can’t do without highly qualified professionals, says RENOVA Stroy Group that is trying to use the best people for the job when dealing with the Academic construction project. For one thing, the company has recently employed Fedor Seleznev, who has been the head of UralNIIAS Institute for over 6 years, in the capacity of Design Work Manager. UralNIIAS is a multi-disciplinary research center for design and construction that specializes in both industrial and civil buildings as well as acts as the general contractor. ‘I am attracted to RENOVA Stroy Group by the

‘No panic due to possible ban on the import of Indian rice to Russia is to be expected in our stores,’ reports Kirovskiy supermarket chain. ‘We have a good assortment of different kinds of rice, and besides, Indian rice, with its 10% share in the turnover, has never been our leading product. This is why even if it is actually banned, we shall experience no shortage. There are other good suppliers such as China (the most popular producer) and Krasnodar’, Kirovskiy’s press officer Olga Nagibina said to UrBC. Rosselkhoznadzor (the state agricultural watchdog) has asked India to deal with its

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel held the traditional monthly press conference today; the conference was devoted to the region’s socio-economic development in January 2007. The region’s industrial growth exceeded that of January 2006 by 10% and came to three times the Russian average. Agricultural growth amounted to 5.5% compared to a year earlier. The retail trade and catering companies’ turnovers went up 24% and 21%, respectively.

The region’s first maternal money certificates were given to the families by Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government Alexei Vorobiev in the course of a solemn ceremony. Five Yekaterinburg-based families who applied for funding provided when a family has their second child have already obtained their 250,000-RUR certificates. The ceremony was also attended by Sergey Dubinkin, Head of the regional division of the Russian Federation Retirement Fund. Over 140 families have applied for the certificates in the region so far.