IN BRIEF

Published: October 4, 2005 (Issue # 1110)

Ford to Make Volvo

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES (SPT) — Ford’s Russian plant could start producing Volvo and Land Rover cars, the vice governor of the Leningrad Oblast, Grigory Dvas, said Monday at a meeting with Japanese businessmen.

“I do not dismiss the possibility of production facilities expansion due to local assembling of Volvo and Land Rover cars. [Ford’s] training center is already teaching specialists [to produce] those vehicle brands,” Interfax news agency cited Dvas as saying.

Ford’s Vsevolozhsk factory has a 200,000-vehicle annual production capacity, Dvas said. “By 2006 the production of Ford brand cars could reach 100,000 vehicles a year,” he said.

Lenenergo Splits in 3

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES (SPT) — St. Petersburg power monopoly Lenenergo has completed its restructuring last weekend. Since Oct. 1 Lenenergo is operating as three firms, the company said in a statement.

Lenenergo’s shareholders approved the reorganization scheme in April to separate the distribution, generating and network managing divisions of the monopoly into individual firms.

Other power monopolists, Kolenergo and Vologodenergo, which operate on the Kolsky peninsular and in the Vologodsky region, are also dividing into several companies.

The companies freed from the splitting of Lenenergo, Kolenergo and Vologodenergo will form into a single power company TGK-1.

Ford Gets New Boss

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES (SPT) — Ford Motor Company on Monday appointed a new general director for its Russian plant. Theo Streit took over from Murray Gilbert on Oct. 1, the company said in a statement.

Gilbert has not been appointed to a new position, but he will stay with the company, said Henrik Nenzen, president of Ford Motor Company in Russia.

Gilbert had managed the St. Petersburg plant since the construction started in 1999. He has stepped down after his contract expired.

Last year Ford produced 29,000 cars in Russia, an increase from 16,000 cars in 2003. Ford’s total sales in Russia recently reached 39 million cars.

Insurers Drawn to Tender

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES (SPT) — St. Petersburg regional fund for compulsory health insurance will hold a tender for private insurance companies to manage the fund’s assets in 2005-2006, Interfax reported Monday.

“It will be a single tender for companies to manage the health insurance fund for all citizens,” Interfax quoted the fund’s executive director Yury Mikhailov as saying.

The tender participants will face technical, financial and operating experience requirements. Should the winning companies be judged as not able to operate the fund efficiently, it can be dismissed unilaterally.