The joint Russian-Czech enterprise MATIS was established on 16 October 1996. On the Czech side its founders were the Tatra, Avia and Liaz motorworks and the Motokov foreign trade association; on the Russian side, the joint stock company Mikhailovsky Ore Construction Plant, the Avtoexport Foreign Trade Joint Company, etc.

The joint enterprise specialises in the pre-sale, warranty and after-sale servicing of the Czech-made MATIS cars, runs a MATIS car repairs and maintenance network, sells cars and spare parts to them. The enterprise has built a service centre complete with modern garages and storage facilities.

Ranking prominently among the MATIS enterprise's other lines of business is the production of building materials: a brickworks fitted with Czech equipment has gone into operation recently. Its output capacity is 30 million ceramic bricks a year.

Besides, the enterprise has set up a farm produce processing and marketing system comprising a meat-packing plant, imported from Germany, with a capacity of five tons of finished products per shift, a mixed fodder factory and a city market. The MATIS joint enterprise has built, and is efficiently running, a modern medical centre and a hotel complex which consists of a hotel proper, a mini-brewery, a general store, a restaurant and a bakery. The MATIS joint enterprise imports consumer goods: furniture, shoes, bathroom and lavatory equipment, tiles, carpets, lighting: fixtures. The enterprise has a large fleet of motor vehicles and provides cargo and passenger transportation service.