Blog: Moving forward our strategy to set 5G international standards - Hoofdinhoud

I start this week in Beijing, where I have just signed the joint EU-China Declaration on 5G with Minister Miao Wei, responsible for Industry and Information Technology.

The European Commission and the Chinese government have agreed to work together in four areas: to try to agree on a common definition of 5G, to explore the possibilities of collaboration in 5G research, to use research results to facilitate the identification of the most promising radio frequency bands for 5G technology, and to promote global standardisation for 5G.

This is a milestone on the global journey to 5G and it builds on similar agreements with South Korea and Japan in recent months. It means that the EU has now teamed up with the most important Asian partners in a global race to make 5G a reality by 2020. If we want to fulfil the EU vision that 5G will be the ultimate digital infrastructure, used by all sectors from industry to transport, utilities and media, we cannot afford to have competing standards between different regions of the world. Both from a technical and economic point of view, it would be too complicated and too expensive to have devices having to handle different 5G standards. Different 5G standards would mean partitioning the global telecom market and creating barriers for our European vendors to export their products. We may not agree on everything with China and there will still be a lot of discussion, but we have now all the cards in our hand to make 5G a success. 5G is also a success from which the European telecom industry will benefit greatly, if only because we will be able to sell our network technologies globally.

As I said in February at my speech in the Mobile World Congress, in the future, everybody and everything will use 5G. Anywhere, at any time, and on the move, always best connected with almost zero delay and a perceived limitless capacity. 5G will spearhead the industrial transformation of Europe, and be the foundation of the Internet of Things (IoT), a market that could be worth one trillion euros in Europe at the end of the decade.

Equally importantly, the European and Chinese 5G industrial associations - 5G-PPP and the Chinese 5G association IMT-2020 - see the importance of the cooperation in this field and will sign a Memorandum of Understanding the day after governments sign. This mirrors similar agreements between the 5G-PPP Association from Europe and its counterparts in South Korea, Japan and the United States.

I am glad that as a result of today's Declaration, European companies shall be able to access and participate in China's publicly funded 5G research, development and innovation initiatives on the same terms as Chinese companies currently participate in the EU's 5G activities. For example China's Huawei, is one of key members of the EU 5G PPP along with other international companies including Samsung and the EU's main industry players like Nokia, Ericsson or Siemens.

This reciprocity will strengthen EU-China cooperation on the development of 5G and in the longer term, give EU companies better access to Chinese markets, which are potentially the world's largest for 5G. It also promises to help us advance on common challenges around the Internet of Things, through the twinning of strategically important IoT initiatives of common interest in the areas of healthcare, transport or energy.

More broadly, reciprocity is of extreme importance, and I raised this during my discussions on connectivity, the digital economy and cyber-security at the EU-China High Level Economic & Trade Dialogue. This Dialogue is a good way of resolving tensions that may arise in the EU-China economic relationship. China and Europe now trade well over €1 billion a day. However, bilateral trade in services only amounts to 1/10 of total trade in goods; investment flows also demonstrate untapped potential as China accounts for just 2-3% of overall European investments abroad, whereas Chinese investments in Europe are rising, but from an even lower base.

There are of course differences between the EU and China, but our economies are increasingly interdependent. The EU's trade flows with China are far more balanced than those of China with the USA, for instance. China is in a transition phase in its economic development and is trying to build its growth more on its internal market, and on greener and more innovative approaches. Europe can help China along that path, and also benefit from this development by exporting our environmental and ICT technologies and services. To do this, proper conditions need to be in place for European companies to be able to provide their expertise and access markets on equal footing with competitors.

I will discuss these and other issues with Jörg Wuttke, President of the Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC), which recently issued an interesting report on EU business in China.

And then, since a signature if merely the beginning of a process, rather than the end, my next 5G milestone will be on 20th October 2015 in Lisbon where I will kick-off the first multi-lateral discussion on 5G standards and spectrum considerations, together with representatives from the US, South Korea, Japan and China.

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