"In terms of innovation capacity, the US, China and Japan took the top three places. The country's rise of innovative ability globally can be seen by its rising number of patents in information technologies," said Yang Shuzhen, head of the Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies.

Qu Xianming, an expert with the National Manufacturing Strategy Advisory Committee, said that as China pushes in-depth synergy of technological advances with economic and social development, innovation will contribute to an increasingly large part of the real economy.

"Industrial growth will benefit considerably from the strategy, which can motivate the long-predicted convergence of IT and other industries to boost momentum in China," Qu said.

On 5G in particular, China had contributed 34 percent of patents essential to 5G standards in the world by March, according to German patent data company IPlytics.

China officially began granting licenses for commercial use of 5G on June 6. From conducting the world's first 5G-enabled brain surgery on a human, to transmitting 8K ultrahigh-definition TV content through 5G networks and piloting self-driving buses and cars, China is pioneering cutting-edge technologies for commercial use.

The nation is set to become the world's largest 5G market by 2025, with 460 million 5G users, according to a forecast by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association, an industry group.

While some have said 5G smartphones are still far away, a group of Chinese tech companies have announced new momentum in such smartphones.

Zhao Ming, president of Honor, a key smartphone brand of Huawei Technologies Co, told China Daily that Honor will launch its V30 smartphones in November, and the phones will support 5G technology. 

Xiaomi Corp founder and CEO Lei Jun disclosed that Xiaomi plans to launch more than 10 types of 5G smartphones next year.

Amid the rapid progress of the internet, Zhuang Rongwen, the minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China, said at the conference that more innovations should be made in the industrial internet sector for higher-quality economic growth.

The industrial internet, which refers to a network of advanced machinery with internet-connected sensors and big data analytics, is widely considered an important way of improving industrial efficiency.

"To maintain the vigorous development of the industrial internet, we must promote deeper convergence of digital technologies in the sector to maximize the effect of digitalization," Zhuang said.