“We will emphasise growing economic, cultural, commercial, and people-centered contacts with Vietnam through the metaverse,” Lee stated in Vietnam’s Bc Ninh province on Monday, as per a media release from Gyeongbuk.
A representative for Gyeongbuk Province, which declared itself South Korea’s “metaverse capital” in February with legislative exclusions and tax benefits, said that no particular investment numbers had been determined.
The metaverse is a matrix of 3D virtual worlds that can be accessed using virtual reality (VR) headsets as a component of the third version of the decentralised Internet, or Web3, which is based on blockchains, the core technology of digital currencies.
The province announced in June that it would spend 18 billion Korean won (about $13.8 million) to position as a centre for metaverse development, using the nation’s technological and cultural resources. The province forecasts that the program will increase the value of the province by 1 trillion won.
The newly elected president of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeol, has placed the advancement of the metaverse and Web3 on his checklist of national objectives. In addition, the Ministry of Science and ICT had set aside US$185 million to encourage the development of enterprises associated to the metaverse.
In October, the prime minister of neighbouring Japan, Fumio Kishida, also pledged initiatives in the metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and identified Web3 innovation as a component of the new foundations of economic growth for his nation.