South Korea to invest $187M in national metaverse project

South Korea’s Ministry of ICT, Science, and Future Planning pledged 186.7 million to create a broad metaverse ecosystem to support the growth of digital content and corporate growth within the country.

The ministry officially stated on Sunday that funds will be spent on completing four main objectives in creating what appears to be an all-encompassing metaverse ecosystem titled the “Expanded Virtual World.”

The government agency intends on using its metaverse as a platform for expanding the virtual industrial growth of cities, education and media.

Content creators will enjoy support on multiple fronts to attract the right talent to help build the platform. The ministry said that it will host community-oriented creative activities, a metaverse developer contest and a hackathon.

Park Yungyu, head of communication and policy department at the ministry, stated in the announcement that this initiative to build a metaverse platform is part of the broader “Digital New Deal” in South Korea. The Digital New Deal is a set of policies designed to foster the growth of digital technologies according to Park, who added:

“It is important to create a world-class metaverse ecosystem as the starting point to intensively foster a new hyper-connected industry.”

The ministry also expects its metaverse to have a global reach since there will be seamless access to South Korean companies over time. It plans on providing support for corporate growth by offering financial support and technological development.

Source: Cointelegraph.com