Global leaders attending the third G20 Summit in Pittsburgh in September

Korea, which has been used to playing in a ground prepared by other countries, is now ready to make straight the paths where others will follow.

The country now has a great chance to replace "Korea Discount" with "Korea Premium" after winning the rights to host the fifth Group of Twenty (G20) meeting in 2010.

In 2010, Korea not only chairs the G20 meeting but also hosts it, thus assuming a comprehensive leadership in preparing the agenda, leading discussions and even drawing conclusions during the event.

The Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) said in its report that Korea has become a country that will establish, change and annul international economic regulations by having won the chance to host the G20 meeting.

KIEP pointed out three benefits that Korea will secure by hosting the event. First, Korea will notice changes in international society earlier than others because it is involved in enacting and revising the process of international regulations. Second, there will be more chances for Korea to reflect its interest in international agenda. Last, more and more countries will likely need Korea''s political assistance and many of them will adopt a warmer attitude, the KIEP said.

Presidential Council on Nation Branding expected that the G20 meeting in Korea would be as great a chance to widely promote the country as the 2002 World Cup, because the leaders of the 20 largest economies will gather in the country and will together recognize the country''s hard-earned development and its economy.

It is not easy to measure the G20 meeting''s economic effect, but when looking at the number of participants in past international events held in Korea, 4,600 people attended the ASEM meeting in 2000, 7,100 were at the APEC meeting in 2005, 7,000 at the Korea-ASEAN summit in 2009, and about 20,000 participants are expected to attend the 2010 G20 meeting, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

Unlike the previous meetings in Korea, the G20 will deal with practical issues directly related to people''s livelihoods and when the event proves successful, Korea''s branding overseas will soar, the ministry official forecast.