The proportion of state investment towards reconstruction and technical re-equipment of enterprises continues to diminish. State programmes to support structural reorganisation and modernise industry are still at an embryonic stage. Banks and financial institutions are still reluctant to invest into many long-term projects. As a result, enterprises are forced to look to meagre internal resources as a main source of investment. Sverdlovsk's heavy industrial plants still need fundamental restructuring.
Many companies still use production methods using large inputs of energy and have high labour costs.
The soaring cost of energy, exacerbated by pressure on the national gas supplier GazProm from the Federal taxation authorities, represents an incentive for enterprises to seek new energy-saving technologies. But the small and medium business sector is growing and is more nimble than the larger, former Soviet conglomerates in the oblast. From Moscow it is easy to pick up a connecting flight to London on British Airways. British Airways is considering opening a direct flight from Ekaterinburg to London in the near future. Ural Airlines and other regional airlines operate to most cities in the Urals, Siberia and other cities in Russia.