China's industrial sector is growing steadily, while its digital infrastructure and next-generation connectivity segments continue to be on the development path, officials and industrial experts said on Tuesday.

Their comments came as the latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that the country's industrial sector had expanded in the first quarter, with value-added industrial output from enterprises above a designated size rising 6.1 percent year-on-year and all 31 provincial-level regions recording positive growth.

The growth was partly driven by accelerated efforts to advance telecommunication services, with the total volume increasing by 8.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter. In terms of infrastructure, the number of 5G base stations nationwide reached 4.958 million by the end of March, and the 5G-Advanced network now covers 330 cities, according to the data.

"They have brought changes and improvements that people should clearly feel," said Xie Cun, head of the ministry's information and communication development department, at a news conference in Beijing. Xie noted that China currently has 2.948 billion mobile internet of things terminal users.

He said that to consolidate and enhance the country's competitiveness and leading position in the information and communications sector, China will step up efforts to systematically plan the development of frontier technologies such as 6G and next-generation internet.

Kasim Alfalahi, founder and CEO of Avanci, a United States patent licensing platform for cellular communication technologies, said, "As China leads the development of 6G technologies, we see significant business opportunities."

Alfalahi added that, from the early days of 4G to today's push toward 6G, China's contribution to innovation has continued to increase — a trend that is clearly reflected in Avanci's business.

"Now we have about 20 Chinese licensors on the platform, which is the largest number from any country in the world," he said, adding that he expects more telecommunications innovations to emerge from China.

As the efforts move from planning to implementation, communications technology is increasingly being developed with a focus on industrial applications.

Ao Li, vice-president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said, "Many of the new 5G-A technologies are now being developed with industrial scenarios in mind."

Ao added that 5G-A is expected to support some key technological capabilities for industrial use, such as ultrareliable low latency, enhanced uplink and downlink capacity, passive internet of things, integrated sensing and communication and high-precision positioning. These technologies are expected to enable a range of significant application scenarios, including motion control, warehousing, positioning and sensing, and data connectivity.

"Over the past five years, the '5G + industrial internet' has undergone a period of cultivation and expansion, achieving progress in terms of key technological breakthroughs, industrial support capacity and ecosystem development," he said, adding that in the coming years, the focus will turn to a new stage of higher-quality and large-scale development.

China has already made notable progress in using information technology to drive industrial transformation.

According to ministry data, more than 25,000 "5G + industrial internet" projects have been launched nationwide to date, alongside the establishment of 1,260 5G-enabled factories. Of these, 100 factories serve as advanced benchmarks.

On average, these facilities have improved product quality by 20.5 percent, reduced operating costs by 18.4 percent and increased production capacity by 24.7 percent, said Xie, the senior ministry official.

Xie added that the ministry will speed up the release of an implementation plan to promote the high-quality development of the industrial internet, aligning with the country's plan to build upgraded "5G + industrial internet" projects.