South Korea’s Science Ministry bullish on metaverse with $187M investment

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT is looking to invest over KRW 223.7 billion (US$187 million to develop the metaverse ecosystem for the country, the ministry announced Sunday.

In a press release issued, the government ministry said it will direct the funds towards creating a decentralized creator economy, support professionals, and encourage companies working in the development of AR/VR.

Ramping up its participation in the metaverse field, the country had recently announced plans to nurture 40,000 professionals and 220 companies specialized in metaverse technology in a bid to become the 5th-largest metaverse market by 2026. At the time, the Ministry of Science and ICT said it would apply the technology in various fields such as Kpop, tourism, education, and art.

The press release describing the $187 million investment noted:

“The Ministry of Science and ICT focuses on creating a sustainable, expanded virtual world ecosystem based on public-private cooperation through the ‘Expanded Virtual World New Industry Leading Strategy’, and promotes inter-company collaboration, technology development, and regulatory innovation so that domestic companies can compete with global companies.”

With this, the Ministry has retaliated its commitment to promote private domestic companies instead of developing its own platform related to the metaverse. It has listed several objectives to plan out its metaverse strategy.

The first strategy involves creating and supporting an expanded virtual world. The second objective looks to nurture talents by allotting KRW 4.6 billion to teach technical knowledge of the metaverse. Thirdly, some investment would be used to support companies that lead the expanded virtual world industry.

While South Korea is backing the metaverse industry, the country is yet to offer a bullish stance on cryptocurrencies. Currently, banks are allowed to provide indirect cryptocurrency-related services in the country, but direct trading services are prohibited. The country also does not allow the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in gaming.

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