(Kitco News) - The metaverse appears to be the soft spot in China’s anti-crypto armor as the Beijing municipal government has announced a two-year metaverse innovation and development plan that will be implemented from 2022-2024.
The plan will require all districts to follow the guidelines laid out in a newly released Web3 innovation program as the country seeks to harness what it refers to as a “new generation of information technology integration and innovation” that will drive the growth of Web3.
Under the plan, promoting the development of metaverse-related industries and helping Beijing establish a benchmark city designed for the digital economy will be the main focus as China looks to be a global leader in metaverse development.
According to the action guidelines, various districts will be required to build technological infrastructure at a city level and encourage its use in a variety of sectors, including tourism and education.
A translation of the document states that its goal is to “Promote digital education scenarios, support in-depth cooperation between Metaverse-related technology companies and educational institutions, expand intelligent and interactive online education models, and develop industry-wide digital teaching platforms.”
Other objectives mentioned in the development program include the integration of technology like 3D visualization and GIS (Geographic Information System), which can assist in building a visual urban space digital platform and help advance the development of digital native intelligent infrastructure.
The plan also mandates that districts and municipalities offer financial and human resource support to help make the project a reality.
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Ant Group partners with Kenanga
On the development front, China’s technology powerhouse, Ant Group, has announced a partnership with Kenanga, Malaysia’s largest independent investment bank, to launch a crypto-friendly wallet and trading application.
The wealth generation and management “SuperApp” will include a suite of financial solutions, including stock trading, digital investment management, foreign currency exchange and crypto trading.
Based on the terms in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Ant’s digital technology unit will provide Kenanga with mPaaS, a mobile development platform originating from AliPay App, which can be used to launch the SuperApp.
According to Geoff Jiang, President of Ant Group’s Digital Technology Business Group, the mPass has been “Adopted by many businesses to build new apps and optimize the performance of existing apps,” and is “well-positioned to support Kenanga in integrating a wide range of products and services to its SuperApp.”
After experimenting with digital financial services for more than five years, Kenanga is excited about the possibilities of this collaboration with Ant Group, as noted by Kenanga Group managing director Datuk Chay Wai Leong, who stated “We look forward to not only unifying a broad spectrum of financial offerings under one roof, but more importantly, to make wealth creation more accessible by democratizing financial services for the millions of Malaysians.” Kenanga reportedly plans to launch the app in early 2023.
