Capitalising on the investment of frequently non-productive time and effort it made in the Comecon countries throughout the period of the Cold War, ICL Plc is moving quickly to establish a lead position in Eastrn Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union, and its latest major venture is a collaboration in Tataristan, part of the Russian Federation, to assemble its mid-range DRS 6000 and DRS 3000 Unix systems. Its partner is Kazan Manufacturing Enterprise of Computer Systems, which was the second largest computer manufacturer in the former Soviet Union, contributing the ES-1046 model to the Rjad unified line of near-IBM 360-compatible mainframes. The joint venture is called ICL-KMECS and the Tatar Republic has committed to finance import of components and subassemblies for the next three years. ICL’s first manufacturing joint venture in Russia, Marine Computer Systems, is assembling ICL personal computers in St Petersburg.
