(Yicai Global) June 14 -- Chinese investment in fifth-generation mobile networks will peak at CNY229 billion (USD33 billion) in 2023, according to a research unit under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China issued its first commercial 5G licenses this month and investment in the sector will keep rising over the next four years, CCID Consulting said in a recent white paper. It also expects 5G smartphone penetration to climb to 75 percent -- or a billion handsets -- by 2024, up from a predicted 2 percent in 2020.

5G is bound to be one of the main economic growth engines over the next few years, the paper's author Shen Guansheng told Yicai Global on June 11.

As 5G is a capital-intensive industry focused on a limited number of equipment makers and operators, those regions with a developed economic and solid grounding in scientific research will boast the greatest advantages in developing the sector, he added.

The paper forecasts that the cities at the forefront of 5G industrial development will be Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu.

Editors: Tang Shihua, James Boynton