The products of China's self-developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) are being used in over half of the countries and regions in the world, a Chinese official said on Friday.

Ran Chengqi, director general of the China Satellite Navigation Office and spokesperson of the BDS, said China will step up international cooperation for better compatibility and interoperability between the BDS and other major navigation satellite systems to provide global users with better, safer, more diverse and reliable services.

Ran made the remarks at a press conference in Beijing, during which a white paper titled "China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in the New Era" was released.

China officially announced the completion and commissioning of the BDS-3 on July 31, 2020. The system allows global users to access its high-accuracy positioning, navigation and timing services.

The white paper said that the BDS was built into a world-class navigation system.

It also laid out how China plans to refine the system by improving its operation management, promoting sustainable development of BDS-based applications and upgrading its governance in the coming years.

Applications of BDS on fast track

China has made continuous efforts to refine the products of the BDS, expand its application fields, improve its industry ecosystem and promote its large-scale applications, according to the white paper.

The BDS has been widely used in various industries and fields in China's socioeconomic development. It has been deeply integrated with emerging technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence, fostering new business formats based on the BDS.

The system has also been widely applied in the transportation sector as well as daily life through smartphones and wearable devices. In 2021, 324 million Chinese smartphones supporting BDS services were exported, accounting for 94.5 percent of the country's total, according to the white paper.

Over the years, a complete BDS industrial chain consisting of chips, modules, boards and antennas has been formed in China. In 2021, the total output value of China's satellite navigation and location-based service industry reached 470 billion yuan (about 64 billion U.S. dollars).

By developing standards and norms, intellectual property rights, testing and certification, and industrial assessment in a systematic manner, China has created a sound industrial ecosystem for BDS applications with all necessary factors and a strong innovation capacity, said the white paper.

(With input from Xinhua)