The 5G industry created massive direct economic output in 2020, according to a new white paper.

Last year, 5G directly led to 810.9 billion yuan (125 billion U.S. dollars) in gross economic output, according to a white paper on 5G development and its economic and social impact. The China Academy of Information and Communication Technology released the white paper.

The industry directly generated 189.7 billion yuan of economic value added (EVA) and indirectly brought about 2.1 trillion yuan in gross output in 2020, the white paper said. 5G also indirectly led to about 760.6 billion yuan of EVA last year.

"Of the more than 800 billion yuan, half was generated by mobile phone terminals, while about 200 billion yuan was an investment for the Internet construction," Yang Jie, chairman of Chinese telecom company China Mobile, said at a sub-forum of the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference. "Meanwhile, 5G information services contributed less than 200 billion yuan."

Many industries have been actively promoting the application of 5G, including the medical industry and manufacturing, said Hu Houkun, deputy chairman of Chinese tech giant Huawei.