Students get a taste of virtual reality (VR) with 5G technology in a smart experience center in Hefei, East China's Anhui Province on Thursday. China's telecoms carriers have been providing 5G plus VR service to customers since last year. Photo: cnshphoto

 

Five Chinese national authorities including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued a five-year action plan from 2022 to 2026 on Tuesday, aiming to further integrate virtual reality (VR) with industrial applications. The plan hopes to achieve a total industrial scale exceeding 350 billion yuan ($48.1 billion) in 2026.

The five-year plan sets an overall goal of achieving major breakthroughs in key technologies such as three-dimensionality and improving the ecosystem so that VR is adopted for promoting economic development in several key sectors. The plan also aims to nurture several enterprises and industrial groups with strong international competitiveness. 

The major targets include significantly strengthening innovation ability, continuously improving the industrial ecosystem, and achieving strong results in integrating VR technology with actual applications. 

For instance, in addition to the 350-billion-yuan industrial scale, sales of VR terminals are expected to exceed 25 million units, and the plan aims to cultivate 100 backbone enterprises with strong innovation capability and industry influence, along with 10 industrial public service platforms.  

The plan outlines five key tasks: promoting the integration of key technologies, improving the industrial chain supply capacity, accelerating the development of more application scenarios, strengthening the construction of public service platforms, and establishing a standardized system.

In conjunction with the five tasks, the plan also proposes three specialized projects with detailed future development plans: integrating and innovating key projects such as network transmission technology; improving the whole industrial supply chain with specific directions for key facilities and technologies; and promoting the application scenarios in key industries such as fitness. 

Following the increasing popularity of the metaverse, the VR industry chain has gradually matured, and the technology has empowered various sectors including VR games, VR education and VR films. The market for VR devices in China is expected to reach 48 billion yuan, and the market for VR content is expected to reach 83.3 billion yuan in 2025, according to a report by Founder Securities.