East China's Nanchang City on Monday unveiled a virtual reality (VR) industrial base to harness business opportunities from the promising technology.

Song You, an official with Honggutan New District in Nanchang, said the base is expected to expand to one with 1,000 VR companies and an output value of 100 billion yuan (15.3 billion U.S. dollars) in three to five years.

Authorities will launch a 1-billion-yuan angel fund and a 10-billion-yuan industrial investment fund to support VR firms in the base, Song said.

Wang Guoping, a professor of the School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science of Peking University, said the base needs policy support in terms of capital, technology and talent.

VR uses computer technology to simulate a virtual 3D environment that resembles reality. With the help of equipment such as helmets and glasses, users feel they are really experiencing virtual scenes.

VR can be used widely in fields such as artificial intelligence, education, training, medical treatment, gaming, digital tourism and virtual communities. Endi