The Beijing municipal government launches a two-year Metaverse development plan that will facilitate the growth of the economy through the formulation of virtual reality in the education and tourism sectors.
The Beijing municipal government announced a two-year metaverse innovation and development plan.
The 2022-2024 development plan requires all districts to adhere to the recently released web3 innovation plan. The development plan also requires various municipalities to track NFT technology trends.
The Metaverse development plan
Besides tracking NFT trends, the plan also requires municipalities to integrate metaverse into different sectors. Some of the sectors requested include education and tourism.
The metaverse development announced on August 23 perceives Metaverse as the future. It recognizes metaverse as a new generation of information technology integration. The development plan also recognizes the kind of innovation that metaverse brings forth.
Metaverse will drive the growth of the internet towards web3. The development plan focuses on promoting the development of metaverse-related industries.
The hyped technology aspires to help Beijing build a benchmark city for the digital economy. The plan seeks to enable the integration of technology such as 3D visualization and GIS. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) will help build a visual urban space digital platform.
The technology will apparently advance the layout of digital native infrastructure. According to the action plan, districts are required to build technological infrastructure. The technological infrastructure must meet city standards.
The infrastructure must indicate use cases in sectors such as tourism and education.
Role of Beijing municipal government
In addition, the metaverse development plan also instructed districts and municipalities to offer financial support. Districts must offer financial and human resource support. The financial and human resources will help build a virtual reality.
Beijing municipal government also demanded to track of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) technology trends. The municipal government insisted on exploring regulatory sandbox programs to support innovation.
Despite being an anti-crypto enthusiast, China seems to be loosening its measures lately. Shanghai also included metaverse in the five-year development plan.
However, only the government continues to show interest in the technology. Despite the efforts, favorable regulations only favor the government and not tech companies.
China’s take on crypto
Despite China’s sweeping bans on cryptocurrencies, domestic web3 talent is quietly flourishing. Many web3 developers venture beyond the country’s borders. China seems uncertain on its web3 journey.
However, it does not want to miss out on the opportunity. In 2019, President Xi personally vouched for blockchain’s role in the technological revolution. The president believes that bitcoin and crypto will play a role in the current technological revolution.
What China mainly detests stems from the crashing prices of cryptocurrencies which in turn disrupt the market and affect the economy. The country encourages a more controlled, centralized version of web3.
China believes blockchain will only work under trusted organizations. The country moved to outlaw initial coin offerings and crypto-based transactions for their financial risks. Despite China’s warning about NFTs as securities, it rebranded them as digital collectibles. Whether China will continue to push for mass adoption of crypto remains a factor bound by time.
