About the region

Ekaterinburg is located at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, east of the Ural Mountains in the central part Russia. Ekaterinburg is Russia's third or fourth largest city with a population of 1.5 million. Founded in 1723, the city was named after Peter the Great's wife, Catherine I.

Today Ekaterinburg is primarily known both as a center of heavy industry and steel-making and as a major transportation hub. Its main industries are ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, chemicals, timber, and pulp and paper. Ekaterinburg has long been an important trading center for goods coming from all parts of the world. It is also famous in Russia as a center for higher education and research, as well as a center for the performing arts. The city’s Opera and Ballet House dates back to 1912. The Urals Philharmonic Orchestra is known to be the largest symphony orchestra in central Russia.

Ekaterinburg is the capital of the Sverdlovsk oblast. Note that the city formerly known as Sverdlovsk has received its old name, but the name for the region or oblast retained unchanged. Economically, the Sverdlovsk oblast is among 10 of the 89 administrative subdivisions of Russia that are net contributors to the federal budget.

The Sverdlovsk Oblast, like most of the Urals region, possesses abundant natural resources. It is one of Russia's leaders in mineral extraction. Sverdlovsk produces 70% of Russia's bauxite, 60% of asbestos, 23% of iron, 97% of vanadium, 6% of copper and 2% of nickel. Forests cover 65% of the oblast. It also produces 6% of Russia's timber and 7% of its plywood. The oblast's major exports include steel (20% of its foreign trade turnover), chemicals (11%), copper (11%), aluminum (8%) and titanium (3%). In terms of industrial output, Sverdlovsk ranks second only to Moscow Oblast and produces 5% of Russia's total. Ferrous metallurgy and machine-building still constitute a major part of the oblast's economy. Ekaterinburg is well known for its concentration of industrial manufacturing plants. The city's largest factories produce oil extraction equipment, tubes and pipes, steel rollers, steam turbines and manufacturing equipment for other factories. Verkhnaya Salda Titanium Plant (VSMPO) is the largest titanium works in Russia and the second largest in the world. The second dynamically developing sector is food production and processing, with many firms purchasing foreign equipment to upgrade production facilities. Many of Ekaterinburg's leading food processing companies - including the Konfi Chocolate Factory, Myasomoltorg Ice-Cream Plant, Myasokombinat Meat Packing Plant - have remained financially stable and look forward to growth.

The Sverdlovsk Oblast offers attractive opportunities for investors - mainly in raw materials (metals and minerals) and heavy industries (oil extraction and pipeline equipment). There exists a significant interest to importing Western products in the fields of telecommunications, food processing, safety/security systems, as well as medicine-related goods and construction materials. Both the Sverdlovsk Oblast and Ekaterinburg city officials have encouraged foreign investment and created a receptive business climate.

The Sverdlovsk Oblast leads the Urals in attracting foreign investment. The top five foreign investors are the U.S., UK, Germany, China and Cyprus. About 70 foreign firms have opened representative offices in Ekaterinburg, including DHL, Ford, Fagerhult AB, ABB, IBM, Proctor and Gamble, and Siemens. Lufthansa airlines has opened a station in Ekaterinburg and offers several flights per week to Frankfurt, a direct flight to Helsinki by Finnair is on course.

Ekaterinburg has a continental climate. Temperatures tend to be mild in summer and cold in winter. The average temperature in January is -15.5C. The average temperature in July is 20C.