We will step into an "intelligent society" in the next two to three decades. In an intelligent society, everything in the physical world would be "sensible" and could be turned into digital signals; networks will connect everything to form an "internet of everything"; based on big data and artificial intelligence, everything could be intelligent. And information and communication technologies represented by 5G, the internet of things and cloud are the foundation of the future intelligent society.

With the rapid development of 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, industries will step into a new intelligent stage of digital economy. Huawei has cited 10 industrial tendencies in its Global Industry Vision 2025. For instance, by 2025, about 14 percent of the households worldwide will have intelligent robots, and 97 percent of the enterprises will employ AI to improve working efficiency. In manufacturing, every 10,000 manufacturing workers will work with 103 robots.

In 2020, the shipment of 5G smart phones will increase to 120 million. 5G plus AI have already brought about unprecedented changes in the fields of media, smart city, manufacturing and medical care. Yet the real economy and manufacturing remain the basis of the digital economy. And China's manufacturing sector has made great achievements in recent years.

In 2017, China's hi-tech manufacturing industry's income reached 16 trillion yuan ($2.29 trillion), up 56 percent from 2012. According to a digital economy research jointly conducted by Huawei and Oxford Economics, the scale of industrial digitalization in 2025 could be as high as $23 trillion, among which the manufacturing and information technology sectors will be at the core of global competition.

5G technology provides higher-frequency band that allows data to be transferred much more rapidly than 4G. And, along with AI, 5G will achieve digital industrial restructuring and promote industrial upgrading.

The speed with which 5G has developed is beyond people's imagination. It took 10 years for 3G services and five years for 4G services to acquire 500 million global users, but 5G is expected to reach that figure in just three years. By 2025, it is expected that 58 percent of the global population will enjoy 5G services.

On June 6, 2019, China officially issued commercial licenses for 5G. It has painstakingly developed the 5G technology, building a comprehensive industrial chain and enough base stations with the support of the government and participation of enterprises. No wonder China is expected to lead the global transformation of the digital economy.

4G technology changed our lives by leading us into the era of mobile internet and mobile multimedia. And 5G technology is going to bring about social changes by creating the internet of everything.

In the autonomous vehicle sector, we will make more intelligent cars and smarter roads. Using 5G and car networking technologies, we will digitalize our basic transportation infrastructure and achieve real-time communication, which will facilitate autonomous driving. Unmanned vehicles equipped with 5G technology will save up to 1 million yuan in driver cost per vehicle, and increase the vehicle's running speed from about 10 kilometers an hour to about 35 kmph, greatly increasing efficiency and safety.

5G has brought media live broadcasting into the high definition era; it is already being used to broadcast large-scale sports events. Thanks to 5G technology, 4K high-definition video collection technology is being used in Chengdu to identify potential safety hazards on the road and traffic jams in the city, saving human resource investment by 40 percent.

Yet the question is: How to take the lead in building an intelligent society?

First, industrial upgrading in the hi-tech field should be made mandatory. Our (Huawei's) innovation at present is innovation of application in terms of technology and solution based on client demands, but only basic scientific and technological innovation are genuine innovations, for which we need to conduct long-term fundamental research.

Second, innovation should be upgraded to invention.

And third, scientific research, too, needs upgrading. College is the base for theoretical breakthroughs and technological inventions, and education is the basis of everything. We should strengthen global scientific research and industry-university cooperation in research, and focus on mainstreaming global industrial standards and systems.

New technologies such as 5G, AI and cloud will reshape the value chain, help transform the old and new growth driving forces, and give rise to new driving forces for the digital economy. We have to seize the opportunity of digital transformation to jointly build an intelligent world.

The author is director of Huawei Strategic Research Institute. The article is an excerpt from a speech he delivered at the 21st Peking University Guanghua New Year Forum in December. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.