China is engaged in tech research and market studies on next-generation mobile telecom networks, or 5G, which would be applied in fields including driverless vehicles, the country's vice-minister of industry and information technology said over the weekend.

Several sectors including driverless vehicles, navigation, manufacturing and newscasting would see the application of the new technology, news portal chinanews.com reported Saturday, citing Huai Jinpeng, who is also a deputy to the National People's Congress.

Huai's words came several days after Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, was quoted by media as saying that his ministry would select six sectors to boost intelligent manufacturing, and intelligent vehicles would be the main area to put the 5G technology into practice.

"Compared with the current 4G network, the biggest improvement of 5G technology is a faster data transmission speed," Ma Jihua, a telecom analyst with Beijing Daojing Consultant Co, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Some analysts estimate that the 5G network will be ­100 times faster than the current 4G one.

"Even though the 4G technology is still far from universal and mature in the world, it is an appropriate time to boost 5G development as the upgrading of technology has further accelerated in recent years and Chinese firms should get ready for it," Li Yi, secretary-general of China Mobile Internet Industry Alliance, told the Global Times on Sunday.

5G technology has a market with large potential and enterprises in countries such as South Korea are doing a relatively good job in it, Ma said, adding that some Chinese enterprises, including telecom giants Huawei and ZTE, also have showed an increasing interest in the 5G technology.

According to a Xinhua News Agency report on March 3, Huawei has a plan to invest at least $600 million in research and development for 5G technology over the next three years.

Li said 5G technology is the cornerstone of many new innovations such as the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), in which a complex integrated network system is used to combine mobile Internet with vehicles.

Without 5G technology, the current 4G network would not be enough to meet the data transmission speed that is needed for the IoV, he noted.

Shanghai-based automaker SAIC Motor Corp has announced it would set up a 1 billion yuan ($159.8 million) fund with Internet giant Alibaba Group to invest in an Internet car, a big step after the two signed an agreement last year to apply more Internet technology to SAIC's future products.

Significant investment in 5G technology means there will be more new products with 5G technology launched in 2015 and we could see China playing a more important role in the global market, Li said.