St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and exhibitions, became the new SPIEF venue. The Forum was held on June 8–10, 2007. The Forum was a cooperation between two venues – the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and the World Economic Forum in Davos. It was commemorated by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and the Trade and the World Economic Forum. SPIEF was attended by more than 8,000 people and delegations from 76 countries, including 9 heads of state, 3 prime ministers, representatives of 340 foreign businesses from 65 countries, 37 representatives of the Federation Council of the
St. Petersburg International Economic Forum economic system to be maintained. The ongoing global economic crisis had confirmed the need to abandon standard approaches and required collective, nontrivial solutions to be adopted. Forum participants discussed new approaches to understanding the future of international financial institutions, the prospects for development of the banking sector, the efficiency of measures taken by governments and other equally important issues. Special attention was paid to Russia's role in solving these problems. The Forum was attended by representatives of the world political and business elite, and leading economists and experts. What were the peculiarities of the situation in the economies and banking