‘We invested 1.4 billion RUR in our networks’ development last year, originally hoping to get all the money through link-up fees. However, the money failed to arrive in time, which is why we had to get a bonded loan of 1 billion RUR,’ Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company’s Deputy Strategic Development Director Sergey Semerikov announced at a press conference on March 13, 2008. He said the company was planning to spend 2.6 billion RUR on development in 2008, so additional (i.e. banks’) resources would have to be used. In addition, the company set up a contracts department in order to collect the link-up fees from the local builders. Last year, the contracts department received 1,188 link-up applications, signed 749 agreements, and implemented 98 of them.