April 17, 2013. Ural Airlines came up with a performance report for March 2013. The company offered its services to 729,999 passengers in January-March 2013 and operated 6,399 flights, including 1,857 international flights, 2,988 domestic flights, and 1,554 flights around the CIS. Ural Airlines’ passenger traffic rose by 25% in the three months of 2013 compared with the first quarter of 2012. The passenger turnover came to 1,967,339,000 passenger-kilometers in Jnauary-March 2013, the airline’s press service reports. In March 2013, Ural Airlines’ passenger traffic increased by 24% against a

April 17, 2013. Over a million private individuals have taken loans from the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development: as of March 1, 2013, the bank issued 1,013,226 loans. This means that since the UBRD started dealing in retail lending in 2004, 115bn RUR worth of loans has been issued to private individuals, the bank’s press service reports. The UBRD’s retail loan book increased by 80% last year and amounted to 36.5bn RUR on January 1, 2013. The demand for express loans has gone up as well: in March, the bank’s POS offices issued 1bn RUR worth of loans, which is a record-setting

April 16, 2013. Intelcom Scientific & Production Center is going to present its newest developments in the field of automatic identification of goods produced by aerospace and machine-building enterprises at the 9th International Arms, Vehicles, and Ammunition Exhibition Russia Arms EXPO 2013 (RAE 2013), Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s press service reports. The developments in question are a technology for labeling the goods directly with a 2D Data Matrix bar code and icDPM, a special software set. The technology allows a company to label the product as its own,

April 16, 2013. The construction of new mechanical assembly shops is now in progress at Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) Scientific & Production Corporation’s head plant in Nizhniy Tagil. The departments will be making new-generation special vehicles, the corporation’s press service says. This project is being completed within the framework of the federally run program on Russia’s defense industry development in 2013-2020. The facility will cost 1.1bn RUR to build. Under the terms of this federally run program, this is a PPP where a portion of the money is supplied by the government and some part is

April 16, 2013. In order to prevent the local roads from being damaged during the period of unfavorable weather conditions, a temporary ban on driving heavy-haul vehicles on Sverdlovsk Region roads between April 20 and May 20 has been imposed by the authorities, the region’s government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. Under Sverdlovsk Region Government’s decree On a Temporary Ban on Vehicles on Sverdlovsk Region Roads in 2013, the ban is imposed on heavy-haul vehicles every year and reduces the workload on the highway axis considerably, that is, from 11.5 tons down to 8

April 16, 2013. International hotel chains are expected to break into Yekaterinburg market soon: according to the findings of a research conducted by Ural-Hermes Consultant Company, the city is growing increasingly appealing for international investors from the hotel industry. A number of international chains will probably set up their hotels here by 2020. In fact, such chains as the four- and five-star Kempinski, Hilton, Radisson, and Sheraton have already announced their plans to build their hotels in Yekaterinburg in 2013-2020. At the moment, such international chains as Rezidor (Park

April 16, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region Finance Ministry closed its tender last month, on March 11, 2013. Put to auction were three lots that would give the winning bidders an opportunity to open and administer deposit accounts where the regional budget’s money would be kept, the Ural Bank for Reconstruction & Development’s press officer reports. The UBRD actually won as many as two lots, for 1.5bn RUR and 2bn RUR. These government contracts are valid for 12 months, with the first, 2bn-RUR tranche moved into the bank’s accounts on April 1, 2013. ‘The UBRD has once again won in an auction

April 15, 2013. An arts exhibition with works by the local art studio members was opened at Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant’s Palace of Culture to celebrate the plant’s 80th anniversary, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The exhibition is two-fold and comprises the retro-graphic works by the studio artists that picture the images of the last century’s tractor-makers and 19 children’s drawings portraying the plant’s daily life; these were created specifically for the anniversary exhibition. The works have been created by the boys and girls aged 6 to 14. The studio teachers Irina

April 15, 2013. A clearly set preparation strategy that would cover both the technical and the socio-psychological issues is needed for the successful organization of EXPO 2020 in Yekaterinburg, Deputy Mayor for National & International Events Coordination Sergey Tushin said at the meeting of the Russian Federation Union of Municipal Representative Bodies’ Coordination Committee. ‘The strategy needs to be elaborated by all of Sverdlovsk Region’s municipalities, which will attract important international events into the area. In fact, this is already happening. There is a certain logic for

April 15, 2013. Three of Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s member enterprises (UKBTM, Uralcryomash, Uralvagonzavod), and two of its daughter companies (UBT-Ekologiya and UBT Service) located in Nizhniy Tagil decided officially to sponsor the kindergartens located in the city’s Dzerzhinsky district. Every kindergarten there is now sponsored by one or several subdivisions of the said enterprises. The first meeting where kindergarten directors and sponsor representatives got together was dedicated to cooperation and tasks for 2103, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. Taking care of

April 15, 2013. Expert Rating Agency’s analysts came up with the rating of Russia’s largest banks in terms of the loan book on sole traders in 2012. The rating featured 30 banks, with average loan book growth at 40% a year, SKB-Bank’s press service reports. Nevertheless, the banks that have proved very successful with lending to sole traders, enjoyed a much faster portfolio growth. As for SKB-Bank, their sole traders loan book rose by 71.7% last year and came to 15.17bn RUR, which secured the bank the 4th position in the national rating: it was only outstripped by Sberbank, Rosselkhozbank,

April 15, 2013. The final tour of Sverdlovsk Region standup comedy student contest known as the Club of the Funny and the Inventive took place at Yekaterinburg Youth Palace on April 10. Timber-Harvesting Lumberjacks from Ural State Forest Engineering University took the first prize, the second prize went to Voices from Ural Federal University, and The Swing from Mining University came third. VUZ-Bank, which sponsored the event, saw to it that all those present had not only a good but also a useful time. The bank offered some discounts and jobs to the students, VUZ-Bank’s press service

April 12, 2013. Ural Diesel Engine Plant (UDMZ) got a license that allows it to design and manufacture machinery for the nuclear units, Sinara Group’s PR Department reports. UDMZ (a member of Sinara Transport Machines Holding) obtained the licenses from Rostechnadzor’s Sverdlovsk Region division of the Nuclear & Radiation Safety Surveillance Division. The licenses will be valid for the next five years. These licenses will mean the plant will be able to produce diesel power plants in accordance with all the requirements that the customers set out for the design and production of this type

April 12, 2013. Ural Airlines presented its services at the company stand at TurSib/SITT-2013 exhibition that opened at Novosibirsk ExpoCenter in Novosibirsk today. The company stand features its new campaigns and special offers, and one can also consult the airline employees, the air carrier’s press service reports. Ural Airlines is now presenting offers on popular tourist season destinations and new, appealing options for passengers as well as bonus schemes. TurSib/SITT-2013 is the 23th international tourist exhibition that is an important event in the tourist industry community’s

April 12, 2013. ChTPZ Group coordinated a company contest at the Club of the Cheerful and the Inventive, with the Crystal Helmet given out as the first prize. This year, five teams competed in the super league: Badminton (from Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant’s Vysota 239 Department), Caravan (comprising players from all the departments at Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant), a select team from Pipeline Bend Plant, Yin-Yang (a select team from Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant), and Whipped to Cream (students of the Future of White Metallurgy Project), the company’s press service reports. The performance

April 12, 2013. Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch paid a business visit to Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ). He looked into the state of affairs at the enterprise and checked some new vehicles. He was accompanied by the enterprise’s head Sergey Golygin, Deputy Director-General Andrei Sentyabov, and Director for Design Development & Technologies Valeriy Kostyuchenko, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. Yurevitch was shown all the promising projects the plant undertook in the year of its 80th anniversary. An ad hoc exhibition featured the B-11 bulldozer – the

April 12, 2013. Rhineland-Palatinate Federal State's Minister of Economy Eveline Lemke said in the course of her meeting with Sverdlovsk Region Government Vice Premier Alexei Orlov at Hannover Messe 2013, an international industrial fair, that the Rhineland-Palatinate-based enterprises would take part in the international exhibition Innoprom in 2014, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. Ms Lemke also asked for more detailed information on the Titanium Valley special economic zone so that these data could be advertized among the German

April 11, 2013. Sverdlovsk Region’s investment potential was presented to foreign industrial enterprises in the course of Hannover Messe 2013, the international industrial fair, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. The region’s Vice Premier Alexei Orlov made a report on the area’s impressive socioeconomic development and on the regional authorities’ interest in attracting foreign investors and in providing all kinds of support to the foreign companies that are willing to set up their production facilities on the Urals’ sites. ‘Sverdlovsk Region’s

April 11, 2013. A young families contest was held at Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ) for the first time this year; the contest was dubbed ‘A Tight-Knit Family’, Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service reports. The judges ruled that Mr. and Mrs. Zaitsev and their daughter Victoria were the most unanimous family. Natalia Zaitseva, an auditor at the plant’s Quality Directorate, and her husband Sergey, who works as a fork truck driver at the Technological Vehicles Department, were ahead of five finalist couples. Under the terms of this all-plant contest, applicants had to be under 35 years

April 11, 2013. Ural’s sales department was opened in Raduga-Park Shopping Mall at 94 Repin St on Friday, April 5. This means that every holder of METCOMBANK and Ural Football Club’s co-branded card can now use one more outlet where they will be offered a discount on the club accessories and souvenirs as well as on tickets to the club’s home games, the bank’s press officer explains. If you get your bank card issued within the framework of this co-branding project, you not only get access to first-rate banking service and discounts but also support your favorite club, as the service fee for