<h1>My Application</h1>
<select [(ngModel)]="selectedValue">
<option *ngFor="let c of countries" [ngValue]="c">{{c.name}}</option>
</select>
NOTE: you can use [ngValue]="c" instead of [ngValue]="c.id" where c is the complete country object.
[value]="..." only supports string values
[ngValue]="..." supports any type
update
If the value is an object, the preselected instance needs to be identical with one of the values.
See also the recently added custom comparison https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/13268 available since 4.0.0-beta.7
<select [compareWith]="compareFn" ...
Take care of if you want to access this within compareFn.
compareFn = this._compareFn.bind(this);
// or
// compareFn = (a, b) => this._compareFn(a, b);
_compareFn(a, b) {
// Handle compare logic (eg check if unique ids are the same)
if(return a.id === b.id) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}id;
}