Gov't to invest USD363mil. to promote virtual reality industry

The Korean government is set to invest 405 billion won (363 million dollars) over the next five years to promote the virtual reality (VR) industry, which is considered a future growth engine.

According to the Science, ICT and Future Planning Ministry, the government and the private sector will invest 279 billion won (250 million dollars) and 126 billion won (113 million dollars), respectively, by 2020 to strongly promote the domestic VR industry. Korea aims to reduce its gap in VR technology with advanced countries from current 1.7 years to 0.5 years in five years.

The government's decisions have been made to develop core VR technologies, such as 3-D depth sensors, expression‎ and motion recognition, and tracking eye movement. Korea will also strengthen its support of promising companies that will explore and develop the VR market. Supporting diverse fields of service platforms, game experience, theme parks, 3-D and 4-D movies at theaters, education and entertainment, the country aims to create an ecosystem where VR-related companies achieve shared growth.

Korea also plans to develop Seoul's Sangam-dong area, which is packed with major media companies and ICT firms into a VR industry hub, by promoting startups and supporting talents' founding companies. By expanding spaces for collaboration, Korea plans to expand joint projects between companies and students studying arts, creativity, and computer graphic.

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