devices, including controllers and regulators of technological processes, electronic drive equipment, circuit boards, aircraft electronics, medical equipment, and textile machinery. Largely due to the ruble devaluation of 1998, total output for this industry increased by approximately 18% in 2000. The Electronics and Mechanics Plant ZEIM (joint stock company, JSC), is a leading Russian company specializing in manufacturing electronic devices and controlling equipment. Examples of the firm's products include electric actuating mechanisms, microprocessor controllers, water flow and heat meters, transducers, controlling devices for automated process control systems, and electric stop and control valves. The company is also a leader in the area of energy efficiency, and is working with the Chuvash government to develop new technologies to reduce energy consumption. ZEIM is a production and financial holding company that employs several thousand people both directly and through its subsidiaries and affiliates. The Cheboksary Electric Apparatus Factory (JSC), is the leading Russian producer of high and low voltage equipment for the electrical power industry. Their products include mechanisms for relay protection, power regulation and control equipment, electro-drives, and other technological equipment. The company, which has approximately 5,000 employees, has established a successful joint venture with the Swiss engineering giant ABB. ABB Cheboksary integrates the systems developed by the Cheboksary Electric Apparatus Factory, the Research Institute for Electric Relay Production, and other firms and sells them to their customers in the electrical power industry around the world. Elara (JSC), is an engineering company with both military and civilian production. Its military work focuses on aircraft electronics, and it specializes in airborne computers, navigation systems, and air control devices. Its civilian operations produce a variety of other electronics equipment, including automatic power control systems, printed circuit boards, and automobile control systems. The company is a full member of the International Union of Machine Builders and has approximately 4,000 employees. Heavy industry Much of the heavy industry in Chuvashia can trace its roots back to a decision of the Soviet government in the 1960s to make Cheboksary the center for industrial tractor production for the entire Soviet Union. Facilities related to tractor production grew quickly throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and in the 1990s the entire complex was privatized. Currently, the largest industrial facility in Chuvashia is Promtraktor, part of Concern Tractor Plants. Promtraktor is the only plant in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) manufacturing powerful tracked and wheeled industrial tractors, bulldozers, lift trucks,