China’s virtual reality (VR) industry attracted strong investment and financing last year as market players raced to tap the burgeoning high-tech sector, reported Xinhua on November 14.

The scale of investment and financing in VR more than doubled in 2021, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Currently, there are over 10,000 VR-related firms in China, pushing the technology’s applications into various scenarios in industry, culture, and education, among others, said the Xinhua report.

Meanwhile, at the 2022 World Conference on the VR Industry, which concluded on Sunday in Nanchang of eastern China’s Jiangxi Province, there were 107 projects worth RMB71.67 billion ($10.11 billion) signed, reported Xinhua. This was the fifth edition of the conference since 2018.

The total contract value of projects related to the VR (virtual reality) industry was 33.92 billion yuan, an increase of 16.52 percent year on year, and electronic information-related industrial projects totaled 37.74 billion yuan.

Themed “VR adorns the world, VR brightens the Metaverse,” the two-day event zoomed in on development trends, challenges and solutions, cutting-edge technologies, and the latest products in the VR industry.

Earlier this month, China unveiled a plan to boost the industry’s development, aiming to expand its market scale to over RMB350 billion ($49.4 billion) by 2026.

The plan aims to cultivate 100 top enterprises with strong innovation ability and industry influence while also aiming to increase the sales of VR to over 25 million units.