Osaka Expo PR work to support developing countries, the mystery of a consortium whose constituent companies are not revealed?
On June 24, 2024, the Osaka Expo Association announced that it has selected the "PR Policy Business Joint Venture of Developing Countries" as a contractor for the "2024 PR Measures for Countries Eligible for Assistance to Developing Countries."
This work is a supplementary budget project for FY2023 of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the maximum amount of consignment is 704,403,216 yen. It is open to the public through the World Expo Association, and the trustee will be in charge of creating a guidebook and virtual exhibition to promote the countries that are receiving assistance to developing countries. The "Joint Venture for PR Measures in Developing Countries Eligible for Support" has a higher management system than other proposers. evaluation Was.
Two consortiums submitted proposals for the open call, and as a result, the "Joint Venture for PR Measures in Developing Countries Eligible for Assistance Recipients" was selected, but the constituent companies have not been announced. On the other hand, the unsuccessful consortium has been announced as the advertising giant Ohiro and the production giant Hakuhodo Products.
Regarding this, the person in charge of the Expo Association explained, "Under the current rules, only the name of the community is announced when signing a contract with a community," and "From now on, we will move to a contract procedure in which the secretary is announced even in a consortium." When asked if it was to ensure transparency, he said, "That's the policy of the Expo Association."
| * Without changing the meaning of the paragraph, some wording has been changed to state that the reason for the announcement of the organizer (ensuring transparency) is not the opinion of the person in charge, but the policy of the Expo Association. |
Joint ventures in which multiple companies jointly make business proposals are common in public works proposals. Normally, the constituent companies are also announced, but in the Osaka Expo project, the branding and promotion plan implementation work for the 2023 Osaka-Kansai Expo "Co-Design Challenge" was 12,499,938 yen. ※ However, the names of the constituents of the Osaka-Kansai Expo "Co-Design Challenge" consortium, which is the final contractor, have not been disclosed. Again, the name of the business has been adopted as the name of the consortium.
This time, when the editorial department confirmed the results of the selection of the business operator on the afternoon of June 24, the name of the constituent business operator of the grand proposer "PR Policy Business Joint Venture of Developing Country Target Countries" (ADK Marketing Solutions + ADK Creative One) was listed, but the name of the business was deleted in the evening of the same day. When I asked the Expo Association about this, they explained that it was made public by mistake at the end of the announcement by the secretary of the consortium.
Advertising giant A was suspended from the Expo project until October last year due to the conviction of the former president of the holding company in the Tokyo Olympics corruption case, but now it can participate in the Expo business. Company A became part of the U.S. investment fund B in 2017 and chose to delist the following year.
U.S. Investment Fund B is participating in the "International Financial City Concept" set up by Osaka Prefecture City and set up an office in Osaka City last year, aiming to expand its business in Osaka.
