Joint meeting of relevant ministries and companies in the Virtual Reality (VR) sector held to foster new convergence industries
Continued strengthening of government support and deregulation to foster new convergence industries and create youth jobs

On the 3rd, relevant ministries including the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, along with major domestic and international VR companies, held a virtual reality (VR) meeting at Sangam Nurikim Square, presided over by Choi Sang-mok, First Vice Minister of Economy and Finance.

During this meeting, the current status of global technological development was reviewed through experiences at the Digital Pavilion, the nation's largest ICT experience exhibition hall, and VR devices and content from domestic and international companies. Additionally, through discussions with various companies in the VR-related sectors—including device manufacturing, content, telecommunications, and broadcasting—industry challenges were listened to, and government support policies were explained.

In his opening remarks at the meeting, Vice Minister Choi mentioned that various industries around the world are converging based on big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence to create innovative products and services, and emphasized that fostering new convergence industries is essential to expand growth engines and provide quality jobs for young people.

Visitors experiencing VR at the exhibition hall

In addition, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announced that it would establish a Growth Support Center in Sangam DMC to support small and medium-sized VR companies, assist promising VR firms in moving in, and waive rent. It will secure a new space of 1,500 pyeong for the Growth Support Center, select approximately 14 promising companies, and provide rent waivers for companies with 10 to 20 employees.

In addition, they announced plans to install development studios and a VR lab at the Sangam Digital Pavilion to support corporate workforce training and R&D, and to renovate the co-production center to provide filming equipment and related systems necessary for the production of immersive content.

In particular, it was mentioned that through the 'VR Developers Competition' to be held for the first time this coming October, an ecosystem among virtual reality (VR) CPND companies would be established and a venue for sharing various ideas would be provided.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is jointly pursuing this with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.It was stated that by promoting the development of virtual reality (VR) content authoring technology as an 'open source model,' it is expected to play a key role in building a VR content development ecosystem, such as enabling developers of various skill levels to easily access and utilize it.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance announced that, as part of expanding infrastructure to foster convergence new industries, it will establish Creative Economy Innovation Centers in 17 cities and provinces nationwide to support collaboration between companies and the government, and will boldly and continuously eliminate various regulations that hinder the development of convergence new industries through regulatory free zones and the New Industry Investment Committee.

In addition, it was stated that 80 trillion won in policy financing is planned to be provided to new growth sectors, with detailed criteria currently being established, and that a new 'Cultural Content Promotion Tax System' will be created to provide a tax credit of up to 10% on the production costs of film and broadcast content.

Finally, it was pointed out that while VR can overcome temporal and spatial constraints and be applied to various fields such as medicine, education, architecture, and national defense, its current application is limited to areas like games and museum exhibits. It was stated that if relevant ministries cooperate to actively develop projects in areas that are both effective and cost-effective, it would be possible to expand budgetary support for these sectors.

In addition, they stated that since the initial market for new industries such as VR is small and small and medium-sized enterprises face significant difficulties in establishing sales channels, they would review ways for the public sector to proactively create demand.

Vice Minister Choi reiterated the government's commitment to regulatory reform for the development of convergence new industries, citing the VIP's remark that "we must drown all regulations and salvage only what can be saved." Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism [applied] the Game Industry Act, which expands the self-rating system for games, currently permitted only for mobile games, to all games excluding those unsuitable for minors and arcade games. He said he would make an effort to revise it.

However, regarding the side effects of regulatory rationalization, they stated that they would not neglect the protection of children and adolescents by also establishing post-management measures for self-rating business operators.