Government to Invest 223.7 Billion KRW in Metaverse Development... 100 Billion KRW Fund Also Established

Integrated Business Briefing to be Held on the 28th

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] The government will invest 223.7 billion KRW to foster the extended virtual world (Metaverse) industry. A Metaverse Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) fund worth 100 billion KRW will also be established to invest in related companies.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 27th that it will provide a total of 223.7 billion KRW to support metaverse platform development, establish a Metaverse Academy, and develop core technologies. Of this, 150.3 billion KRW will be allocated to non-research and development (R&D) areas, and 73.4 billion KRW to R&D areas.

First, it will discover and support leading metaverse platforms based on decentralization and creator economy. With an investment of 34 billion KRW, it will support the development and demonstration of ▲integrated metaverse such as metaverse cities ▲lifestyle economy metaverse including education, media, and user creation ▲industrial convergence metaverse such as manufacturing, medical, and conventions. Among these, the integrated metaverse will emphasize regional characteristics by combining with local tourism and history.

Developers and creators will also be nurtured. The 'Metaverse Academy' will be opened, investing 4.6 billion KRW to train 180 people. Ten 'Metaverse Labs' will be newly established with 2.4 billion KRW support for university master's and doctoral research labs. Two 'Metaverse Convergence Graduate Schools' will also be newly established with an investment of 1 billion KRW. Developer competitions and creator hackathons will also be held.

Expansion of integrated support bases for corporate growth in regions will be carried out, focusing on funding support, technology development, and overseas expansion. With 6.7 billion KRW, a Metaverse Hub providing metaverse testing and demonstration environments will be built and operated in Pangyo, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, and two ultra-wide area metaverse hubs dedicated to discovering and demonstrating regional companies will be established with 2 billion KRW.

A total of 73.4 billion KRW will be invested in technology R&D. This includes XR twin core technology (7.2 billion KRW) for activating digital therapeutics, 5G-based VR/AR device core technology (11.2 billion KRW), immersive content core technology (25.9 billion KRW), and hologram core technology (25.2 billion KRW). The R&D project call was previously completed by the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation.

A digital content fund will also be created to expand the business areas and scale of metaverse-related small and venture companies. It will be formed as a 100 billion KRW Metaverse M&A fund to focus investments on related companies.

Additionally, the 'Metaverse Ethics Principles' will be established as a self-regulatory norm for the metaverse ecosystem. While encouraging the spread of private-led self-regulatory systems, laws and systems will be refined. A 'Metaverse Government-wide Consultative Body' will also be formed to discuss unethical and illegal acts related to personal information protection and intellectual property protection.

Park Yoon-kyu, Director of the Information and Communication Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "This year marks the starting point for intensively fostering the metaverse as a hyper-connected new industry, a core task of the Digital New Deal, and it is important to create a world-class metaverse ecosystem."

Meanwhile, the National IT Industry Promotion Agency will hold an online briefing session on the 28th at 2 p.m. via KakaoTV and the official YouTube channel to explain this support project.