investintomsk.com

Standard & Poor’s improved Tomsk Oblast credit ratings for the second time in 2011

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:29:00 +0000

The international credit rating agency Standard & Poor's raised Tomsk Oblast's long-term credit rating to BB on the international scale and to ruAA on the national scale. The outlook has remained stable.

That is the second time Tomsk Oblast has its credit ratings raised in 2011. In June this year the ratings were already raised one step. The second increase reflects improved financial indicators of the Oblast budget, a balanced fiscal policy, and a conservative approach in budgeting for 2012-2014.

"Credit ratings are an independent and unbiased assessment of the region's credit capacity by international experts," says acting First Deputy Governor Aleksander Fedenev. "The positive dynamics of the ratings over the recent years surely indicates that Tomsk Oblast has chosen the right economic and financial strategy: Oblast budget revenues are increasing, debt load is going down, Tomsk Oblast becomes more attractive and safe for investors."

According to Aleksander Fedenev, improvement of the ratings encourages investors to come to Tomsk Oblast and the more investors come, the less money cost for the budget.

He also emphasized that "improvement of the ratings is especially indicative of the performance of the Oblast in the context of a worsening global economic situation and declining credit ratings of the world's leading countries, especially in the eurozone."

Tomsk improves its key socioeconomic indicators in 2011

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:28:00 +0000

Over the 11 months of 2011 Tomsk Oblast increased its annual volume of own shipped goods by 4.3% in physical terms and by 19.4% in monetary terms against 2010.

That helped more effectively shape the budget revenues and for the first time this year pass the 50-billion-rubles threshold in the consolidated budget of the Oblast.

For the first time over the recent years a significant increase in oil and gas production and mining volumes – 8.1% – was recorded. The recorded unemployment in Tomsk Oblast in 2011 was 1.8%, which is lower than before the first economic crisis (2.4% in 2007-2008). The average salary in the region was 24,130 rubles in October and 23,267.5 over the 10 months of 2011.

"I hope that at the end of the year we will have stepped over the 24,000 hurdle. That is of primary importance for the public sector workers because the average salary is first of all our target for teachers' salaries. Other categories of public sector workers will follow," said the Governor of Tomsk Oblast Viktor Kress.

The Governor also informed that according to forecasts, the population of Tomsk Oblast by the end of the year was to increase by 7,000-7,500 people, including natural increase and migration gain. The figures over the 10 months of 2011 are higher than the forecast. "Birth rate over death rate is 676 and the positive migration balance is 7,223. Adding up, that is plus 7,899 people over the 10 months. So, I believe that for the first time over many years our annual population increase will be more than 10,000."

Tomsk airport reconstruction project to attract private investment of over 900 million rubles before 2013

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:27:00 +0000

Tomsk airport as part of the airport holding OOO Novaport and Russian Federal Agency of Air Transport (Rosaviatsia) signed an agreement on co-investment in construction and rebuild of the Tomsk airport facilities.

The agreement is intended to attract more than 900 million rubles of private investment in the Tomsk airport before 2013. The Tomsk airport construction and rebuild project includes construction and commissioning of an air passenger-cargo international checkpoint, construction of an administrative building with a control tower, reconstruction of the landside, widening of the access way to the airport, and construction of additional parking places and a fuel storage.

The agreement was signed under Decree of the Russian Government of December 5, 2011 No. 848 "On the federal target program "Development of the Russian transport system (2010-2015)". The Decree stipulates that Rosaviatsia be the contracting authority under the Civil Aviation program which provides funding from the federal budget, regional budgets, and extrabudgetary sources. The Tomsk airport construction and rebuild project will be financed through private investment sources and public-private partnership mechanisms.

Background

OOO Novaport is part of AEON Corporation. Its focus is complex airport development projects. The geography of the airport holding includes Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Chita, Astrakhan, Barnaul, Chelyabinsk, and Volgograd.

Japan commercializing Tomsk technology for production of ultrasharp razor blades

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 02:23:00 +0000

Razors manufactured using Tomsk technology compete with Gillette. They are made in Japan, though. An innovative blade sharpening technology for stainless steel blades developed by the Tomsk Institute of High Current Electronics was sold to a foreign company.

The originator of the technology – Dr. Nikolay Koval from the Tomsk Institute of High Current Electronics – revealed that the unique method uses "ion bombardment and sputtering."

"Also, introduction of nitrogen in the steel dramatically improves durability," he adds.

A yet unnamed Japanese company that cooperated in the research and eventually obtained the rights to commercialize the technology has given it the name "PINK". PINK is a Russian-language abbreviation for "hot cathode plasma source" or, as the Japanese marveled with the Tomsk know-how used to joke, "plasma source of Nikolay Koval". Pink is also the color that Tomsk-developed plasma generators produce.

"We developed a source that can treat a lot of blades at a time. Generally speaking, we produced a prototype model of our laboratory plasma generator," says junior research assistant of the Institute of High Current Electronics's plasma emission electronics laboratory Vladimir Shugurov.

The laboratory is currently running in the fourth such plasma generator which will soon be taken to Japan following the other three. The Japanese seller of PINK blades is said to already have spent an estimated $100,000 back home to promote Tomsk innovative blades, seized some of the Gillette's local market, and is getting ready for a trade expansion to foreign markets.

Hughes opens its first Eurasian education center in Tomsk

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 07:46:00 +0000

Tomsk will train engineers for Hughes Network Systems, the global leader in broadband satellite solutions and services. On Friday, December 9, at 10 am, a Hughes-TPU research and education center will be officially opened in the Cybernetics Center of the Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU).

"This is one of just three such education centers in the world. One is at Hughes' in the US, another in South Africa and the other in Tomsk," says Mikhail Sonkin, Vice Rector and Director of the TPU Cybernetic Institute.

The Hughes-TPU education and research center will:

• Provide course training and refresher courses to address the demand for specialized services of the Hughes' Russian and foreign customers

• Implement the latest versions of satellite communication systems by Hughes and their hardware and software components

• Conduct research and development in the creation of a new generation of navigation and telecommunication complexes for mobile groups and coordination and control centers on the basis of the latest technology achievements by Hughes

The opening ceremony will be attended by Konstantin Lanin, head of the Hughes representative office in Moscow.

The center will promote the cutting edge VSAT satellite communication technology in Russia through training engineers specializing in maintenance of Hughes satellite systems. Key customers for the center's services will be VSAT satellite operators and users of Hughes VSAT technologies.

The center will provide course training on the architecture, configuration, and maintenance of Hughes satellite communication systems and testing Hughes software. Engineers trained in the center will also provide installation and commissioning services for Hughes' customers in Russia if needed, by approval of HNS.

Hughes and TPU signed a protocol of cooperation on the inauguration of the TPU-based Satellite Technology Education Center. Equipment worth 270,000 US dollars has been purchased. TPU instructors had an internship in the US and successfully passed the certification exams.

Background

Hughes Network Systems is the world's leading provider of satellite broadband for home, office, big enterprises, and governments globally. HughesNet markets and sells Hughes systems and provides support to customers by ensuring optimum compatibility of the sattelite and land technologies. Hughes terminals compaly with global standards approved by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and International Telecommunications Union (ITU), including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A and GMR-1. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 2.5 million systems to customers in over 100 countries.

INOTomsk 2020 project to attract 40 billion of investments to the region before 2013

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 07:45:00 +0000

According to preliminary estimates, the INOTomsk 2020 project will provide 25,000 well-paid jobs in the region by 2020. As the Governor of the region Viktor Kress pointed out, the number of innovative enterprises should double "from today's 450 to at least 1,000."

"We should attract around 40 billion rubles from 2011 to 2013. A little more than half of this amount will be budget money," he added.

Viktor Kress reminded that the INOTomsk 2020 project consists of four main elements. The first block is universities. Higher education and science are expected to attract investments (budget and private) of up to 240 billion rubles by 2020.

The second block is the innovation infrastructure. According to the Governor, there are over 40 infrastructure elements that need funding.

The third block is the city infrastructure. Roads, places at nursery schools, housing. Several hundreds of 'super economy' apartments will be built for innovators under the project.

The fourth block is development of high technology production. The governor emphasized that the manufacturing sector in Tomsk should not be cumbersome. That will be achieved mostly through the SEZ.

First in Russia LTE equipment production facility started up in Tomsk

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:44:00 +0000

An official opening of a LTE base stations manufacturing plant took place in Tomsk. The plant will address the demand of mobile operators for 4G networks equipment.

The plant was built in the Tomsk SEZ within the framework of a joint venture created by Nokia Siemens Networks and Micran Research and Manufacturing Company – OOO Wireless Technology Center. Before the end of 2011 the joint venture will have produced 1,000 Flexi Multiradio 10 base stations, and will increase the output to at least 10,000 in the following year.

"We are proud to be the first to have started producing LTE equipment in Russia. Russian mobile operators will now be able to use high quality 4G equipment," says Viktor Gunter, Micran General Director. "High technologies and streamlined manufacturing processes of Nokia Siemens Networks provided a reliable foundation for this important accomplishment, launching of a facility for the manufacture of cutting-edge LTE base stations with a label "Made in Russia."

"The special economic zones serve the purpose of attracting investment and the latest technologies and increasing Russia's share in the international markets of high technology products. The joint project implemented by Nokia Siemens Networks and Micran fully meets this criterion," says Oleg Kostin, CEO of the SEZ. "Currently, there are no more than a dozen companies in the world who produce 4G LTE equipment. And now, the new plant in the Tomsk SEZ has joined them. That is an important step towards a modern telecommunications infrastructure and innovation-based economy. Not only in the region but in the entire country."

Herbert Merz, Vice President of Nokia Siemens Networks, said at the opening ceremony that Tomsk was deliberately chosen as a place for the plant. "We are taking advantage of its innovation, research, and university potential," Herbert Merz said. "We were also encouraged by a tremendous administrative support provided by the regional government – the Tomsk Oblast Administration and Governor Viktor Kress."

Background

Micran Research and Manufacturing Company is a leading Russian developer and producer of wireless telecommunications equipment, microwave instrumentation, single- and multifunction microwave modules and assemblies. Micran implements cutting edge technologies for the design, production, and quality control of GaAs monolithic crystals and highly mobile electron transistors supporting frequencies up to 100 GHz. Micran is a vertically integrated company which itself markets, develops, produces, and supports its microwave radioelectronics products.

Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global vendor of telecommunications equipment and solutions. The company is oriented towards innovations and sustainable development. It provides a full range of mobile, fixed, and converged networks services; professional services such as consultancy, system integration, systems deployment and maintenance; and operators' networks management services. Nokia Siemens Networks is a global leader in telecommunications equipment, software, and professional services. The company has operations in 150 countries. It is headquartered in Espoo, Finland.

Rusnano open joint stock company (OAO) was established in March 2011 through the reorganization of the state corporation Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies. OAO Rusnano implements the federal public policy for the development of the nano-industry and acts as a co-investor in nanotechnology projects with a significant economic or social potential. OAO Rusnano is 100% owned by the Russian state.