Shanghai – the urban area with highest population in China – is reportedly investing resources in measures for utilizing a metaverse in public services throughout the next half decade. 

Specifically, Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology’s five-year development roadmap, focusing on the electronic information sector, reportedly listed four aspects to deep-dive into, and one of which is the metaverse.

Per a CNBC report, the paper reportedly urged for the promotion of the metaverse’s use across a vast array of sectors, nominally public services, business offices, social leisure, industrial manufacturing, production safety and electronic games. 

The commission reportedly aims to offer encouragement for further research and development of underlying technologies, like sensors, real-time interactions and blockchain.

China’s interest towards emerging techs has reportedly been unchanged throughout the past years, with its attempts at introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as well as its use of digital biometric hardware wallets for the virtual yuan have concreted its position as a pioneering nation, when it comes to the issuance of a CBDC.

In March, China’s State Council reportedly rolled out to the public its five-year development roadmap, which includes several of these same fronts for exploration.

The term “blockchain” reportedly made its first appearance in China’s 14th five-year plan, a document offering details to the nation’s economic goals for the next half decade, which runs from 2021 through 2025.

The metaverse has reportedly been surfacing as an aspect of the crypto sphere that is reeling in interest from high-profile firms throughout the past months. 

In October, Facebook reportedly rebranded into Meta, in an attempt to bank on the popularity of the term metaverse.