Conference on virtual reality opens in eastern China
Xinhua
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NANCHANG, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The 2018 World Conference on the VR Industry opened Friday in Nanchang, capital of eastern China's Jiangxi Province, offering a glimpse into the world's and China's latest developments in virtual reality (VR).

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Visitors experience VR products ahead of the 2018 World Conference on the VR Industry at a VR industrial site in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, on October 10. (Photo: VCG)

China's VR industry has witnessed rapid growth in recent years, and its huge market potential has attracted global VR developers including Microsoft, Qualcomm, HTC, Sony and Huawei to the conference.

The three-day event will feature a VR expo and forums centering on VR, artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G technology.

Jiangxi's vice governor Wu Xiaojun said a total of 60 projects will be inked during the conference, with total investment amounting to 19.1 billion yuan (2.78 billion U.S. dollars).

Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, said at the opening ceremony that VR should not just be a novel application, but should fuse with the internet, big data and cloud computing to become a tool to solve real problems.

He also praised Jiangxi's vision and commitments to VR investment, saying it is nurturing experts on the new technology.

In 2016, Jiangxi launched China's first industrial base for VR, and Nanchang now boasts over 60 VR firms, according to Liu Qi, Communist Party chief of Jiangxi Province.