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
International Economic Forum of the Americas of Montreal, the Toronto Global Forum, the World Strategic Forum and the Conference of Paris. The International Economic Forum of the Americas was founded in 1995, when Gil Remillard, a former Minister of Justice of Quebec, held an inaugural Conference of Montreal, on June 20–22, 1995. At the time, the globalization of the economies was beginning to emerge at an increased rate. With the fall of communism, the success of the "Uruguay round" in 1989, the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994 and the beginnings of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the world was ready to