Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation (Yekaterinburg, Russia), Electrotyazhmash (Kharkov, Ukraine), and ELTA (Kharkov, Ukraine) signed a tripartite strategic cooperation agreement. The three enterprises are going to cooperate in the field of development, production, and market promotion of excavating and drilling machinery, the spokesperson for Uralmash said to UrBC. The spokesperson for Uralmash Machine-Building Corporation reports the three parties are planning to sign contracts that would allow each of the companies to build up their technological and engineering potentials, raise

The price of one liter of gasoline is now nearly the same in Russia and the U.S. and comes to about one dollar. According to the state statisticians, the average gas and diesel fuel prices experienced a certain growth over the several weeks of April. The automobile gasoline now costs 20.32 RUR per liter (AI 76 is sold for 18.02 RUR per liter, AI 92 is sold for 21.36 RUR per liter, AI 95 is sold for 22.84 RUR per liter), while diesel fuel costs 20.89 RUR per liter. Fuel prices went up in fifty Russian constituencies. Nazran experienced the most dramatic price increase: gasoline grew 21.4% more

Nineteen workers of Lobvinskiy biochemical plant have been hunger-striking for seven days now. Twenty people began the hunger strike on April 28, 2008 demanding that they should be paid their wages for the years 2007 and 2008 and get compensated for the delay in accordance with Article 236 of the Labor Code. At the moment, the enterprise owes its employees some 19 million RUR worth of wages.

Six Ural banks were featured in Interfax-100 rating compiled by Interfax-CEA (Center for Economic Analysis). Three of them are located in Tyumen Region, while the other three banks are based in Sverdlovsk Region. SKB-Bank was declared Russia’s 76th largest bank, with its asset volume coming to over 30.8 billion RUR on March 31, 2008. The bank has definitely made great progress in the rating, as it was only given the 86th position a year earlier.

Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel chaired a monthly meeting on the region’s social development program; one of the points on the agenda had to do with the prospective construction of the Ural Chess Academy in Yekaterinburg. The Governor said that due to lack of financing a new site had to be found. ‘The money we do end up getting is not enough. These 13 million RUR will cover the engineering infrastructure only,’ he noted. The Academy was initially supposed to have been built next to the concert hall downtown, but the new location must be found within the next week.

According to the decree the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel signed on May 4, 2008, the region’s former Deputy Minister for Industry and Science Anatoly Gredin was appointed First Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region Government and the region’s Minister for Industry and Science.

IES-Holding came up with the preliminary results of the audit it did of TGK-9 investment projects. The auditing procedures were carried out in March and April 2008 after the Holding became the company’s majority shareholder. The company’s investment plan appears to have a number of significant flaws. The Holding’s experts believe these plans are based on somewhat obsolete growth and energy spending data that aren’t backed up by the energy consumers’ financial obligations and do not take into account the companies’ reliance on the energy spending dynamics. The experts also see the projects’

‘We have almost finished inspecting Sverdlovsk Region’s warehouse infrastructure. It looks like we have 2.4 million square meters of storage facilities, but only one-third of those can be classed as belonging to A or B categories,’ Sverdlovsk Region Minister of Trade, Food, and Services Vera Solovieva announced at a monthly meeting chaired by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel. ‘Twenty-five buildings are currently under construction; the building jobs are in full swing at seven sites, a dozen premises are being prepared for the process, and seven land allotments still have to be

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against the Mayor and the Municipal Duma of Nizhniy Tagil, claiming that they violated the federal legislation regarding the protection of competition, the spokesperson for the Service reports. According to the spokesperson, the Mayor is believed to have violated the money transfer procedures (as stated in Article 20 (part 1) of the federal bill) involving two local management companies. Besides, the Service reports the municipal Duma is allegedly guilty of the same offense. The case is to be considered by the

URSA Bank keeps implementing its strategy of regional expansion and has recently introduced its 16th office in Chelyabinsk Region, the bank’s press officer reports. URSA Bank’s new office, located in Karl Marx St, started operating on April 24, 2008 and now offers its customers some of the most popular and advantageous products for private individuals. The range of services includes opening and management of current accounts and savings deposits and consumer and mortgage lending; besides, customers can get their VISA cards issued and dealt with in the office.

Mayak Corporation’s management still cannot get its apartment buildings in Bazoviy Lane commissioned, the company’s President Marina Konkova announced in the course of a monthly meeting chaired by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel. Yekaterinburg’s municipal council provided the developer with the land allotment in Bazoviy Lane in order for the latter to put up apartments for a few hundred families, including about a hundred militiamen. Mayak Corporation then promised to offer 13,000 square meters worth of apartments to the officers, yet, according to Mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkadiy

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Tyumenenergobank to natural persons for 31 to 90 days went down by 80% (from 5 million RUR to 1 million RUR) in January-March 2008.

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of nongovernmental financial organizations’ deposits in Uralfinprombank valid for up to 30 days plummeted by 100% (from 21.5 million RUR to zero) in January-March 2008.

‘The first three apartment buildings of Yekaterinburg’s Academic district will have been commissioned by the end of the year. These include two seven-storey buildings and one eleven-storey one or some 30,000 square meters altogether,’ says the Academic construction project manager Stanislav Pridvizhkin. Stanislav Pridvizhkin said the construction process fit in all the plans and schedules, with builders currently working on the concreting.

Hewlett-Packard coordinated a region-wide conference on software products in Yekaterinburg. The informational coverage was provided by UralBusinessConsulting Agency of Information and Analytics. More than 170 enterprises’ executives, solution providers, and reporters met to discuss the latest IT advances’ potential. Hewlett-Packard presented one of its newest IT products: HP Service Manager based on HP Service Desk and Peregrine Service Center. In addition, the company announced it had managed to make its НР Service Manager and HP Asset Manager country-specific, which means that both programs

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of nonresident private individuals’ demand deposits in SberInvestBank went down by 49.31% (from 73,000 RUR to 37,000 RUR) in January-March 2008.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against Alco-Market Magnum, claiming that the latter violated the federal advertising legislation, the spokesperson for the Service reports. Magnum’s stores located at 1 Samoletnaya St. and 42 Kosmonavtov St. are reported to violate Article 14.3 of the Administrative Offense Code and Article 21 (part 2) of the federal advertising law through exposing strong drink ads in the shop windows.

According to the National Managers’ League’s profitability ranking of unit investment trusts as of April 25, 2008, the share price of LUKoil Fund First (Uralsib Management Company) has gone down by 15.31% since January 1, 2008.

Sverdlovsk Region’s division of Federal Antimonopoly Service took legal action against UralTransBank, claiming that the latter violated the federal advertising legislation, the spokesperson for the Service reports. UralTransBank is reported to violate Articles 28 (part 3) and 5 (part 7) of the federal bill through its ads devoted to Universal, Rainbow, and Car Loan products.

According to the regional statisticians, 2,900 flights were operated through the region’s major airport in January-March 2008 (which exceeds the figures for the first quarter of 2007 by 600), while the number of trains dealt with by Sverdlovsk Region Railways (Russian Railways Public Company’s regional branch) came to 5,400, which falls short of the figures for a year earlier by 200. These data are available from the report on Sverdlovsk Region’s socioeconomic development in January-March 2008 on the Federal State Statistics Service’s official website.