Calgary to host international bank meeting

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced on Tuesday that Calgary will host Inter-American Development Bank annual meeting in 2011.

The exact date of the meeting was not released, according to CBC News, but Canada's Prime Minister announced to the media that this is the first time Canada has hosted the meeting in 20 years. Stephen Harper told the CBC, 'The return of the IDB to our country will open doors for all Canadians to do more business in the Americas.' He further went on that business officials from across the globe will help Calgary's hospitality industry. Inter-American Development Bank was created in 1959 to help Latin American and Caribbean countries through lending practices, 'For 50 years the Inter-American Development Bank has been arranging multilateral financing that has … fostered economic, social and institution development throughout Latin America and the Caribbean,' Harper stated in his speech on Tuesday. In April, the Prime Minister announced that it would make up $4 billion available to the bank in order to enhance its lending capacity. Currently, Canada is not a lender from the bank.