The nation will accelerate the research and application of cutting-edge communication technologies, as it strives to fuel the integration of the digital and real economies, said Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology.

He said with information technology being an important driver of China’s economic future, more efforts are needed to promote the in-depth incorporation of technological advances with economic development.

“We will step up the development of new technologies, in order to build a sound telecom infrastructure to support China’s pursuit of high-quality growth,” Miao said at the opening ceremony of PT Expo China, an annual telecom exhibition held in Beijing.

His comments came as the global telecom sector enters the final sprint toward the commercialization of 5G, fifth-generation communication technology which is expected to be 10 times faster than 4G and will support superfast movie downloads, self-driving cars and the streaming of virtual reality games.

So far, China is nearing the completion of its third-phase 5G tests, thanks to the participation of both domestic companies including Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and foreign enterprises such as Ericsson AB.

Chen Zhongyue, deputy general manager of China Telecom, said after building the world’s largest 4G network, China is highly likely to lead the world in 5G.

China is also working hard to establish a beachhead in quantum communication which is widely recognized as the next big technology to revolutionize the telecom world.

Han Zhao, an expert at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank affiliated with Miao’s ministry, said despite being a latecomer, China has achieved rapid development in quantum communication, having done a good job in both research and early commercialization.

“Domestic companies have made machines that can apply the technology to encrypt networks to make communication unhackable,” Han said.