SK Gov’t Provides Funds For ‘Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality’ Industries

The South Korean government will provide a 40 billion won (US$34.5 million) in special funds to support and expand the virual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) industries in the country.

According to the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, the special funds are aimed at bringing more investment in the AR and VR fields and to reach the other global powerhouses in the world.

The government will invest 12 billion won yearly into the funds for the next two years and the remaining money from the 20 billion won budget will be placed to private funds according to the ministry.

The ministry will select a company that will operate the funds for AR and VR industries. In addition, the funds will be established in the form of the Korea Venture Fund. For the next three months, there will be an evaluation in picking a qualified management company with a strict set of criteria.

"The government wishes that the special funds for VR and AR industries would foster the related industries as they are the centerpieces of the future," said Seo Seok-jin, a ministry official handling related policy.

The government will also focus on investing in projects and companies producing contents not only VR and AR hardware. Furthermore, the government announced earlier a package of measures to develop the VR and AR sectors and the mentioned sectors will be added to the list of "new industries."

According to a report, the virtual reality and augmented reality industries are expected to generate about $150 billion in revenue by the year 2020. It also says that consumers will soon be flooded with augmented and virtual reality content and services.

The South Korean government is investing and providing funds for the virtual reality and augmented reality industries because there is a great potential of generating revenue from this field.