OREANDA-NEWS. On the 25th of February Russian Machines Corporation held its second annual management conference. The event which took place in Nizhny Novgorod brought together the top managers of Russian Machines and directors of the corporation's businesses. The conference served as a stage for the managers and manufacturing expects to discuss the results achieved in 2013, share their experience in solving various business-issues and determine the key strategic mid-term objectives.

The conference was hosted by GAZ Group's site inNizhny Novgorod, where international management and production practices are implemented. The results presented by the participants of the conference have confirmed the effectiveness of GAZ Group Board's strategy which is aimed at the establishment of global partnerships with international companies. Contract manufacturing projects launched in cooperation with VW, Daimler and GM helped GAZ Group modernize its core production capacities and develop much-needed skills in its personnel. Besides, in 2013 the Group came up with a number of competitive products of its own such as new generation GAZelle Next LCV, GolAZ and LiAZ buses. Today GAZ isRussia's leading manufacturer and supplier of buses and light commercial vehicles. Also it is the official supplier of buses for the Winter Olympics 2014. 739 LolAZ and LiAZ buses have been shipped over toSochito support the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Outside of GAZ Group too global partnerships with international leaders are seen as an increasingly attractive way of doing business. In 2013 the corporation set up a number of joint ventures. One is with ACGO (US) to produce and distribute agricultural machines in Russia, another is with Siemens (Germany) to make new generation metro wagons and take part in Moscow Metro's tender for the delivery of this type of rolling stock and yet a third one is with Clean Energy (US) to develop an infrastructure Russia needs to expand the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) as a motor fuel. Plans for the immediate future include the launch of a joint project with Fritzmeier Group which will see production of cabins for agricultural machines set up in Tver.

Russian Machines' strategy for 2014 places special emphasis on the development of personnel, bringing in the best specialists and training skillful personnel in-house. Over the last few months the management team has been strengthened through the addition of top managers with outstanding hands-on experiences of running manufacturing assets on an international scale. These include CEO of RM-Terex Christian Kremer, CEO of RM-AGCO JV Markus Schlosser, new top managers of GAZ Group Vadim Sorokin, Gunter Heiden and Albrecht Kёhler. Speaking at the conference Russian Machines CEO Manfred Eibeck has said that this year HR issues will remain in focus as all the plants controlled by the corporation will make it one of their top priorities to develop their personnel, bring in the best professionals and train highly skilled management, engineering and production specialists.

Other strategic imperatives Mr. Eibeck has said will be most relevant for Russian Machines in 2014 are boosting export sales in all the businesses, rolling out a common production system across the whole corporation as well as revising, expanding and improving the product portfolio by the corporation in partnership with others or relying on its own resources.