BEIJING -- China's virtual reality (VR) market continues to expand as the country makes breakthroughs in key technologies, an official said Thursday.

The VR market will amount to 54.45 billion yuan (about $7.9 billion) by 2021, said Wu Shengwu, deputy head of the electronic information division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) at a press conference of the 2019 World Conference on VR Industry.

China has become the world's most significant production site of VR terminal products, which nurtures the VR consumer market, Wu said.

"The MIIT will continue to support the building of a VR manufacturing innovation center, advance the research and development of VR core technologies, and promote VR's industry-wide applications," Wu added.

The 2019 World Conference on VR Industry, jointly hosted by the MIIT and east China's Jiangxi province, will be held from Oct 19 to 21 in Nanchang, capital of the province.