The World Bank will open a permanent office in Korea, a first for an international financial organization. During the Asian financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank opened temporary offices here to administer their bailouts, but this is the first permanent office.

Strategy and Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan signed a memorandum of understanding with World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim on the office at a breakfast meeting Monday.

The decision "reflects how highly the World Bank estimates Korea's economic development experience," said ministry official Lee Jang-ro. The office, which is to open early next year, "will serve as a window for the transfer of Korea's economic development model to developing and less developed nations," he added.