SCO and BRIC Summits took place last week in Ekaterinburg. The event brought the heads of participating countries, including President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, to the Middle Urals. Local events have been less noticeable due to the major political and economic happenings of the summit. Learn more in the weekly review of events by UralPolit.Ru.
SCO and BRIC Summits took place last week in Ekaterinburg. The event brought the heads of participating countries, including President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, to the Middle Urals. Local events have been less noticeable due to the major political and economic happenings of the summit. Learn more in the weekly review of events by UralPolit.Ru.
SCO meanings
Sverdlovsk Region spent two years in preparations for the event that took only 2 days. SCO and BRIC Summits brought the heads of many countries to the Urals – from the fellow neighbors Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to remote India, Iran and Brazil.
During the summit Sverdlovsk Region received a credit line from a Chinese bank for 1 billion rubles. It is planned to accomplish about 60 investment projects using this money.
President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev also came to Ekaterinburg, where the region’s governor Eduard Rossel got the chance to demonstrate positive dynamics of the region’s development before his term in the office expires.
During the summit’s workings Dmitry Medvedev stated that Russian ruble might become a reserve currency in the future. American dollar is not doing this job properly now, observed the Russian President. “We can’t go on without additional reserve currencies. A process of introducing a new reserve currency is long. This is a process whereby an economy must gain prestige and other nations must want to maintain their reserves in a particular foreign currency. It is a common understanding that reserve currencies must not only circulate as a means of payment between countries, but also be used as a means of financial accumulation, to be used as financial instruments”, said Dmitry Medvedev
The President also spoke about the main economic results of the event. SCO was created as an organization to deal with security, but due to the world’s economic situation economic problems were brought to the focus of attention during the summit. “We have discussed a number of infrastructural projects in the spheres of energy and construction. Each country offered its own vision. It was suggested to elaborate and ratify a number of conventions”, the President said.
During the summit Ekaterinburg’s Declaration was signed. It states the key conclusions of the summit concerning global and burning political issues of today.
The level of organization of the summit in Ekaterinburg has been highly estimated both by the foreign guests and the Russian President. Head of Russia thanked the citizens of Ekaterinburg for patience.
Battle Field Sysert
Sverdlovsk Regional Court decided to cancel the results of mayor’s elections in Sysert. This is the first precedent in the history of the region when the elected city mayor’s will lose the post due to formal mistakes made by the election commission. Votes from two districts of Sysert will be counted again. It means that the general result of the elections might change and current mayor Maxim Serebryannikov might give place to his opponent Vadim Starkov.
Pensioners’ capital
Sverdlovsk Division of the Pension Fund of Russia won a case at the Sverdlovsk Court of Arbitration against the regional office of the Post of Russia. The Pension Fund transferred 955 million rubles of pension money through the Post of Russia to be delivered to the pensioners. The regional office of the Post of Russia opened accounts in the Bank VEFK-Ural, which later became bankrupt and almost one billion of pension rubles was lost. The Pension Fund filed a case to the court of arbitration against the Post of Russia for using the accounts of the unstable bank and unjust enrichment. The court decided that the Post of Russia should reimburse the Pension Fund for 955 million rubles it lost.
Single-factory towns in the focus
Presidential envoy in Ural Federal District Nikolai Vinnichenko and the apparatus of the Ministry of Regional Development of Russia started elaboration of a federal special purpose program of support for the single-factory towns.
Single-industry towns (single-factory towns) have been built during the Soviet era around huge industrial complexes and the majority of a town’s population used to work for this one factory. These towns have fallen easy prey to the ongoing economic crisis. The Ural Federal District has the biggest number of such single-industry towns in the country.
The reason for such actions was provided by the recent serious social problems in the town of Pikalevo, Leningrad Region (St. Petersburg), where almost half of the adult population was left without jobs because all three factories of the town stopped operations.
State Duma Deputies and Senators from the UFD will provide their suggestions regarding complex measures. One-time financial support for such towns is not seen as effective, so complex approach to the problem is expected.
ParisAir Show Le Bourget
Michael Voevodin, the President of VSMPO-Avisma, Evgeny Romanov, General Director of VSMPO-Avisma Corporation, held more than thirty meetings with the representatives of the companies concerned in Russian titanium products on the first day of the show. During negotiations with the potential customers the current state of things and cooperation development prospects in future were discussed.
On June 15, a great number of visitors (generally representatives of the official delegations and aerospace specialists) visited international aeroshow in Le Bourget and showed obvious interest in the products and business of the Russian titanium corporation – PSC VSMPO-Avisma Corporation.
Sergey Chemezov, General Director of the governmental corporation Rostechnologies, chairman of VSMPO-Avisma Corporation board of directors was among the first visitors of VSMPO’s stand. The delegation of the titanium corporation comprised of 13 people.