PANews reported on May 22 that according to the official website of the Jiangsu Provincial Government, Yangzhou City recently introduced the "Metaverse Industry Cultivation and Development Action Plan (2024-2026)," aiming to achieve a metaverse-related industry scale of 10 billion yuan by 2026, driving the city's software and information service industry revenue to exceed 20 billion yuan.

First, an action to enhance innovation capabilities will be carried out. This includes promoting metaverse-related enterprises to actively penetrate the VR (virtual reality) wearable device industry chain; building and operating an artificial intelligence service platform to provide general services such as digital identity registration, data asset management, digital twin construction, and basic mechanism models; and promoting the transplantation of existing cultural heritage, scenic spots, and historical figures into virtual spaces to create a batch of original digital IPs and digital human images with Yangzhou characteristics.

Second, an action to attract and cultivate industry entities will be implemented. This involves establishing and improving a metaverse industry chain investment map, introducing and cultivating a batch of leading enterprises, and attracting a number of industry headquarters or R&D centers; incubating a batch of "little giant" enterprises, "specialized, refined, and new" enterprises, and high-tech enterprises focused on niche tracks in metaverse technology; and encouraging film production, game development, and software development companies to actively undertake the R&D and manufacturing of metaverse software and hardware products through a crowdsourcing development model, accelerating the capture of new metaverse tracks.

Third, an action to integrate application scenarios will be conducted. This includes creating three typical metaverse application scenarios and demonstration projects; building a batch of "industrial metaverse + vertical industry" open platforms, guiding SMEs to innovate and start businesses based on the platforms; using artificial intelligence and digital human technology to explore the development of virtual brand endorsements and virtual live broadcast economies; and combining "contactless approval" with metaverse technology to accelerate the application of digital human customer service and real-scene navigation in government services.

Fourth, an action to build the industrial ecosystem will be undertaken. This includes proactively planning the future network system, accelerating the research and deployment of new networks such as 5G-A/6G, gigabit optical networks/10-gigabit optical networks, FTTR (fiber-to-the-room), and satellite internet; releasing a directory of urgently needed talents for the metaverse, and encouraging universities in Yangzhou to establish new metaverse-related majors.