BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Monday that 28-nanometre chips that enable mobile devices to receive signals from the Beidou navigation system are in mass production and mass manufacturing of high-precision 22-nanometre positioning chips will soon kick off.
China will build a complete industrial chain of chips, modules, boards, terminals, operation services for Beidou, Ran Chengqi, director general of the China Satellite Navigation Office, said at a press conference.
In the past decade, the total output value of China’s satellite navigation and location services industry has been growing at an average annual rate of more than 20%, reaching 345 billion yuan ($49.47 billion) in 2019 and is expected to exceed 400 billion yuan in 2020, Ran said.
In June, China successfully put into orbit its final Beidou satellite, completing a navigation network years in the making and setting the stage to challenge the U.S.-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).
Many countries using Beidou services are involved in the Belt and Road initiative spearheaded by China to create a modern-day Silk Road of trade and investment.
Beidou-related services such as smart port and land mapping have been exported to about 120 countries, including those in ASEAN, South Asia, Eastern Europe, West Asia and Africa, Ran said.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo and Liangping Gao; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Michael Perry)
