NORTHEAST ASIA UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS MET IN VLADIVOSTOK

The First Forum of NEA University Presidents was held in Vladivostok during 14-15 October.

It was attended by presidents of more than 30 universities, including Dalian Foreign Languages University, Beijing Language and Culture University, Heilongjiang University from China, Mongolian State Education University, Technological University Chiengku (Taiwan), Prefectural University Yamaguchi, Takuseku University, Hokuriku University from Japan. Republic of Korea was represented by eight universities.

The Russian side was represented by Amursky, Far Eastern, Irkutsk and Yakutsk state universities.

The forum discussed interfacing between universities in developing informational and biological technologies, and made agreements on exchanging students and interns. - Yulia PROKHOROVA.

SVYAZ-BANK CAME TO VLADIVOSTOK

A grand opening of Primorye's branch of Svyaz-Bank was held on 15 October.

The ceremony was attended by regional and city officials, bank management in the person of Svyaz-Bank president Gennady Meshcheryakov, representatives of cellular communication and informational technology companies.

As Svyaz-Bank's Primorye branch manager Viktor Dovzhenko declared, its foremost target is introduction and development of postal and banking services in Primorsky Krai as well as development of retail banking products.

NOTE: The bank was established in 1991 and runs 30 branches. After an additional stock offering in this year, its charter capital grew 14.5 times and amounted to 2,234.6 million rubles. Svyaz-Bank ranks among Russia's top 60 banks in terms of charter capital.

In Vladivostok, Svyaz-Bank's branch intends to serve telecommunication business, Primorsky Krai's federal post authority and other large companies. Its nearest plans include opening of branches in Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnodar, Kaliningrad, Novosibirsk and Perm. - Yevgeny ITAROV.

FESCO HAS NEW BULK CARRIER

An acceptance ceremony was held at Oshima Shipbuilding Corporation's yard in Japan on 12 October. The dry cargo carrier "FESCO Marina" is the second ship, received by Fesco in this year under its fleet renovation programme to be completed in 2009.

As Fesco' press office reports, the ship is designed for carrying bulk and timber cargoes. The FESCO Marina is the most up-to-date vessel in Fesco's fleet. It is equipped with 4 shipboard cranes of 30 tons each and can load and unload cargo without using shore facilities. Its maximum speed is 14.5 knots, main engine is 6,000 kilowatts, deadweight is 33,000 tons, crew number is 21.

For two coming years, the FESCO Marina has been chartered by a first-class Danish charterer and is currently in its first voyage, proceeding to loading ports in China, from where it will carry steel products to Nigeria. After that, the ship will carry various cargoes between Europe, West and South Africa. - Yury ROGOV.

LOCAL INSURER RETRIEVED LICENSE

The insurance surveillance authority called back its decision to revoke license from insurance company "Garantia I Zashchita."

The decision was canceled by Directive No. 67 of 27 September 2004, after the company had submitted necessary documents.

As "ZR" wrote earlier, the insurance surveillance authority issued a directive revoking licenses from 94 insurers due to insufficient capitalization. Two companies from Primorye, Nakhodka-Re and Garantia I Zashchita were included in that list. However, both companies re-submitted documents and proved their right to be deleted from that black list. - Tatiana KOZINA.

TURNIF DISAGREES WITH CRITICS

"ZR" published recently an article analyzing Turnif's performance, which raised much comments, particularly on the part of Turnif's management. OAO Turnif director general Alexander Ryabchenko explained his viewpoint on this matter to "ZR."

The author asserts, says Ryabchenko, that one year before the mayoral election in Vladivostok Turnif all of a sudden became loss-maker and with much difficulty managed to overcome this crisis. Ryabchenko officially declared on Turnif's behalf that the statement on Turnif making loss, published by "ZR," is far-fetched and not true.

Fishing industry, continued Ryabchenko, operates on a seasonal basis. Therefore, a fishing company may be deemed profit-making or loss-making only by results of a fiscal year. The author called the 8-million-ruble profit earned by Turnif in 2003 symbolical, though about 60% of Primorye's fishing companies are in the red by results of last three successive years.

Turnif's performance in these three years was as follows: 2001 - 4.5 million rubles of net profit, 2002 - 5.6 million, 2003 - 8.6 million rubles, despite the fact that it was allocated 50% less fish quotas in that year and the total value of marketable output reduced by 50 million rubles.

It is only natural for a company, investing resources in production development, to have profits growing not very fast. Turnif opened a fish processing factory in Vladivostok in 2003, outfitted with state-of-the-art process equipment. One of Turnif's priorities is fleet renovation. Thus, it bought the "Igor" factory trawler in spring, repaired it, equipped with new process lines, radars, fish search instruments. In next fishing season, it will proceed to fishing grounds under the new name "Vladivostok."

Primorye's banks readily issue loans to Turnif, which proves its solvency and creditworthiness. Average monthly salary in Turnif is 27,000 rubles. The so-called public efficiency factor (taxes paid per ton of catch) in Turnif is Primorsky Krai's highest among fishing companies: 1,230 rubles in 2002 and 1,665 rubles in 2003. - Yevgeny ITAROV.