Yokohama names IR Operator Selection Committee

The new body will engage with companies that participated in the RFP before the pandemic and review economic estimates for an IR bid

Japan.- The city of Yokohama will name seven participants to integrate a new integrated resort Operator Selection Committee.

The first meeting of the new body will be held on November 30, when it will select a committee chair.

According to GGRAsia, members will be selected from the academic sector and will have expertise in matters related to the development of integrated resorts, including construction, urban development, economics, corporate management, gambling addiction public safety and tourism.

The committee will have further discussions with the firms that entered the city’s initial request-for-proposal (RFP) process from before the pandemic hit the Asian market earlier this year. A second RFP process began in October.

The next step will be to revise cost and time estimates for the city’s potential IR development.

Yokohama’s intended IR bid has attracted some of the most interest from potential operators. Genting Singapore is one of the potential suitors interested.

Recently a new local body was created, the Yokohama Innovation IR Council, to engage the community and promote the economic benefits of an IR.

That move was an attempt to counteract growing opposition to the prosed IR bid, which has seen opponents demand a referendum on the topic.