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Partnership is never one-sided
How does one keep up with the progress in transportation under the present hard economic circumstances? The way to follow is well-known. It is the reconstruction, technical re-arming and the employment of new technology and new types of products. But how are the problems of current financing to be overcome? The latter constitutes a major hindrance. The search for investors has brought us considerably closer to the idea of creating stock holding companies of open type. The final step of its establishment was buying 20% of shares by the DWA (Deutsche Wagonbau). It has won the investment competition owing to its highly professional program with the investment sum of 5mln. Deutsch mark. It was oriented towards creating new production facilities for the assembly of new cars and the capital restoration of cars made in the years 1975-76, i.e., basically, those produced by the concern itself. The program is practically finished. In 1995 we launched a new assembly shop on the basis of car bodies, supplied to Russia by the DWA, which meets the highest standards set by the Eurostandart organization. In these years tens of passenger car air-conditioned compartments made for special St.Petersburg-Moscow trains have been assembled, as well as cars equipped with special compartments and facilities for disabled people, and the restaurant cars for long distance trains. Further production developments required an expansion of facilities for wood-processing.We have reconstructed a shop, containing new technology lines and equipment. Thus, we are expanding the facilities for producing more articles of wood sufficient to equip cars in building progress, capitally overhauled high quality cars and for electric trains. We have also launched a new section for the fire-prevention vacuum impregnation of wooden articles. What can we say concerning the further development of a partnership with German car-makers? Our partners possess an extensive experience in the production of double-decker cars of high capacity for suburban railway lines. They have interesting technological ideas and the experience they are willing to share with us. The Oktyabr plant, on the other hand, possesses rich production facilities as well as considerable experience in car-making. In fact, completly overhauled cars are new creations, with the fully restored body and the newest units, devices and assemblies built into them, let alone the renewed articles of the interior. That is why we hope (and the Russian governement and the Railways Ministry seem to offer their support) to make full use of our production capacities and start producing the first Russian double-decker passenger cars for suburban railway lines. I am positive that our relations with German car-makers and our joint investment of material and economic resources will be profitable not only for the plant and its partners but also for Russian railways in their obtaining high-class passenger cars for lower prices. Our partnership as well as our business relations’ experience in dealing with the German company has been highly estimated by Chancellor Helmut Kohl. In February last year, while on a visit to St.Petersburg he visited the plant and met its specialists and workers. Herr Kohl highly appreciated the business ties between German and Russian parties and expressed his confidence that they will expand in other branches of the Russian economy, industrial production, transport and the sphere of culture.
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