The company that planned the open and closing ceremonies for the Olympic Games in Athens has been chosen to draw up the marketing development plan for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

　　The plan is supposed to outline ways to make the event profitable, something few local World Expos have been able to pull off.

　　Yesterday, the city also designated China Mobile as an official Expo partner for 2005 - meaning that the telecom operator is allowed to utilize the Expo brand to promote its mobile business.

　　Both companies were selected through public bidding, city officials said.

　　"Through market strategies, we expect the World Expo 2010 brand will never have a closing day," Zhou Yupeng, vice mayor of Shanghai and director of the Bureau of World Expo Coordination, said at a ceremony to sign the two deals yesterday.

　　US-based Interpublic Group is scheduled to submit its market development plan for the Expo - including brand promotion, licensing, and globally marketing - within the next two months.

　　David Bell, co-chairman of IPG, said his company plans to make the world fair profitable by creating "a different kind of Expo."

　　"We will rebrand the World Expo in 2010 by linking it to all the excitement about Shanghai and China," he said while explaining the city's Expo will not follow the suit of several previous money-losing world fairs.

　　He said the Beijing Olympics in 2008 gives an advantage to the Expo by spreading China to the world in advance and the Expo brings an "additional opportunity" for those international companies and visitors who miss the Olympics.

　　Also at yesterday's ceremony, China Mobile vowed to provide "key technical support" during preparations for the event.