Changwon, a South Korean coastal city on the southeast end of the peninsula, plans to recreate its industrial complex in the metaverse in an effort to promote the businesses and products.
The project will make use of digital twin technology, which creates a virtual model that is an exact replica of a physical object to build an inch by inch copy of the physical complex. Changwon’s metaverse industrial complex will also be used to test out and predict future advancements in technology and environment.
The mid-sized industrial city with a population of a little over a million boasts 2,871 businesses as tenants in the industrial complex, which in total employs 122,625 people, according to the city’s official website.
“The city of Changwon will win the first position in the fourth industrial revolution through focusing on rebuilding the industrial structure with mobility, artificial intelligence, hyper-connection [technology] and more,” said Changwon mayor Hong Nam-pyo at Changwon’s digital platform conference last Friday.
The city will spend 13 billion Korean won (about US$9.07 million) to build the industrial complex in the metaverse under the supervision of the Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corporation, which is under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Changwon’s metaverse project isn’t the first major case in South Korea that has employed key technologies in Web3 to nourish the local life and economy.
Seoul, South Korea’s capital city, last year announced a five-year plan to build a replica of the mega city on the metaverse to provide another avenue for citizens to access municipal services, and promote virtual tourism. The Seoul metaverse launched a beta test run of its first stage last month.
Busan, the second largest city of South Korea, is hoping to grow its blockchain sector as a driving force for the future. Since being designated as a special blockchain zone in 2019, Busan is busily attracting companies and talents in blockchain. More recently, the city secured partnerships with Binance, FTX and Huobi to build its first city-backed crypto exchange.
These developments follow the country’s open support for Web3 technology.
Earlier this year in February, South Korea’s finance ministry poured around US$185 million into building a metaverse ecosystem throughout the nation. The country’s science ministry hopes for South Korea to become a top-five metaverse leader of the world in just five years.
The nation-wide initiative seems to have gained momentum as South Korea elected Yoon Suk-yeol as president, who believes Web3 will be a key growth factor for his country.