5G technology, as a key element of “new infrastructure”, plays a vital role in making the economy and society digitalized, networked and intelligent, said a senior Chinese official at a recent symposium on faster 5G development in the country.

A visitor tries a 5G-based panorama live broadcast device during the 2019 Smart China Expo in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Aug. 26, 2019. (Xinhua/Tang Yi)

Chen Zhaoxiong, vice minister of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, noted that 5G contributes to not only epidemic control and work resumption, but also promoting investment, consumption and economic upgrading and fostering new driving forces of economic growth.

5G enables data flows at a vastly greater volume and allows for more efficient data connection for information communication technology infrastructure due to its ability to operate at high speed and low latency, said Su Xiaodi, an official with Chinese tech giant Huawei.

Su added that 5G, as a spearhead of new infrastructure, empowers other elements of new infrastructure including artificial information and big data centers.

As a new generation of mobile communication technology, 5G is the cornerstone of the traditional infrastructure’s digital and intelligent transformation, he noted, adding that intelligent transformation of other industries also relies on 5G technology.

The integrated development of 5G and other sectors offers tremendous opportunities for companies upstream and downstream along the industrial chain, Su said, expecting 5G’s commercial value to become clear in sectors such as smart media, education, power grids, medical care, as well as urban security, self-driving and robots in the next one to five years.

Su’s remarks were echoed by Professor Sun Songlin from the School of Information and Communication Engineering under Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

From a technological perspective, 5G serves as the basis for other infrastructure facilities pertaining to digital economy, including artificial intelligence and industrial internet, while economically, it can directly boost information consumption and promote economic and industrial restructuring, Sun noted.

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) estimated that total investment pertaining to 5G network construction in China will reach 1.2 trillion yuan by 2025.

The construction of 5G networks will also boost investment in the regard of applications in the upstream and downstream along the industrial chain as well as other industries, which is expected to outstrip 3.5 trillion yuan in the next five years, according to the CAICT.

The institute also expected China’s 5G industry to directly create over 3 million jobs by 2025, with aggregate information consumption brought by 5G commercialization exceeding 8.3 trillion yuan.