I’m in the city of Novosibirsk now. The local
people call it “Novosib”. My business trip is going well so far. I’ve already
started researching the possibility of becoming partners with local businesses.
I’ve met with several companies, and I can say that we’ll have to take some
risks if we want to work with them. The important thing is to build a good
relationship so that we can trust our new business partners. Thankfully I make
friends easily, and I’ve been staying away from arguments so far. There is
great potential here, but we’ll have to be careful with how we try and use it.

It’s a good thing that they have good public
transport in Novosibirsk and cabs are not very expensive anyway; it would be
impossible to walk in such a big city though the sidewalks are wide and clean
enough. The area of the city is huge. It is built on two sides of the Ob.
River. I’m staying on the left side, but the center of the city is on the
right. I cross the river each day, and the bridge is so long! You can see for
miles in each direction.

The city is quite young and modern. There is
even a subway system here (it’s called the “metro” in Russia). The subway must
be helpful in winter especially. I cannot imagine a long line of people waiting
at the bus stop for half an hour when it’s -40F. The city is the
transportation center for all of Siberia. Everywhere here I see trucks on the
roads, and boats going up and down the river. And of course this is a major
stop for the railroad.

Novosibirsk was built in order to develop
science in Russia, so there is very good university here, including a special “science
town”. There are a lot of scientists and engineers in Novosibirsk. I think that
this is the right city to find talented computer programmers and researchers.
We should invest more time and money into developing business here. Pack your
suitcase impression, I’m sure.

Yours sincerely, Ernest Fisher