One of the types of activity that are the most attractive to the investors is transport and communications (19.2 % of the total investments volume in 2007). The transport infrastructure of the Chelyabinsk region develops, which is primarily caused by its favourable geographical location: the centre of Russia, border of Europe and Asia, crossing of transport ways going from north to south and from west to east. One of priority tasks of the region is the creation of modern transport-expediting service system and terminal facilities in the junctions of various types of transport.
The important role in the transport-expediting centres formation is played by the South Ural railway (YuUZhD) that in 2007 daily transported 279.1 thousand tons of cargoes on the average.
The motor transport organizations have transported in 2007 18.3 million tons of cargoes. The main highways are: Ì5 (Moscow - Samara - Ufa - Chelyabinsk - Yekaterinburg) and Ì36 (Chelyabinsk – Troitsk - border of Republic of Kazakhstan), for the reconstruction of which it is planned to get out 55 billion rubles from the federal budget in 2009-2015.
The Chelyabinsk region is characterized by a high level of development of information and communications technologies. In 2007 the volume of communication services totaled 16,465.5 million rubles which is 23.2 % more than in the previous year.
Nowadays the Chelyabinsk region has reached a 100% digitalization of intra-zone primary net. All cities and district centres of the region are provided with automatic long distance direct dialing. The technical resources available make it possible to provide users with almost any modern communication services.
At present a unified communication medium of the Chelyabinsk region is established on the basis of “Transtelecom”’s segment of the main optical fiber communication line. The network covers the major part of the Chelyabinsk region and goes through not only cities and towns, but almost each station of the South Ural Railway can have a dedicated channel. This communication line can transmit about 30 thousand communication channels.