China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), now providing global coverage, is operating smoothly and has seen rapid growth in its applications across a range of industries.
As China's independently developed satellite navigation system, BDS is one of the four global systems recognized by the United Nations.
Its development began with early proposals in the 1980s, leading to the official approval of the BDS-1 project in 1994. The past three decades have seen BDS evolved through a carefully phased strategy.
The system has progressed through three major stages. BDS-1 was completed in 2000, providing services within China.
Construction of BDS-2 began in 2004 and was completed in 2012, extending the system's coverage to the Asia-Pacific region.
Development of BDS-3, which began even before BDS-2 started providing regional services, was completed by 2020, enabling global coverage.
"Currently, BDS operates with stability and reliability, delivering outstanding performance. This ensures a solid foundation for large-scale applications, industrial development and global services," said Liu Dake, executive vice president of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Location Based Services (LBS) Association of China (GLAC), a non-profit association specializing in the GNSS and LBS industry.
The outstanding performance of the BDS comes from its unique hybrid constellation, which includes medium earth orbit (MEO), inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) and GEO satellites.
Satellites in different orbits, 21,000 and 36,000 kilometers from Earth, work together to provide continuous, high-precision positioning, navigation and timing services to users worldwide.
In recent years, the BDS-related industry in China has experienced rapid expansion. In 2023, the total output value of China's satellite navigation and positioning service industry reached 536.2 billion yuan (about 75.9 billion U.S. dollars), up 7.09 percent from the previous year.
"The scale of BDS applications is continually expanding, and the industry is now entering a new phase of large-scale application and high-quality development. With deeper integration of BDS with technologies such as 5G, cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence, we anticipate new digital applications and innovative products and business models to emerge," said Yu Xiancheng, president of GLAC.
China’s BDS sees smooth operation, thriving applications
About 800 interdisciplinary experts from China and around the world convened in Beijing on Friday at the 2024 World Agrifood Innovation Conference (WAFI 2024), advocating a low-carbon transition in agrifood systems through sci-tech innovation to address climate change.
The conference, themed "Climate Change and Agrifood Systems Transformation," highlights the urgent need for innovation in the agricultural sector.
Experts at the conference acknowledged the numerous challenges facing agrifood system transformation and the need for global collaboration to share experiences and results through ongoing dialogue.
"One of the major highlights of the conference is multidisciplinary [observations]. Entrepreneurs and scientists are all on one platform. What we particularly emphasize is the dialogue among scientists, entrepreneurs, and investors, which is very crucial. How can a scientist's research results be transformed into productivity? This transformation necessitates industrialization, wherein businesses must leverage their technological innovations," said Fu Wenge, director of the MBA Education Center, at China Agricultural University.
During the conference, scientists, educators, entrepreneurs and investors from over 70 countries and regions will discuss various topics including smart agriculture, AI-driven breeding, transformations in livestock and aquatic food systems, genetic resources and germplasm innovation, as well as food nutrition and security.
David Nabarro, a World Food Prize laureate, highlighted that achieving sustainable agriculture requires not only national policy development but also international cooperation across industries, disciplines and stakeholders.
"This conference is about finding ways that innovation can help agriculture and food in China and beyond meet the needs that we're going to see now and in the decades to come. Well, this is a country that contains some of the world's brightest scientists who not only are good at doing the science, but also applying it and sharing it with others," said Nabarro.
Alongside the gathering of experts, the event is hosting the 2024 World AgriFood Technology Expo, showcasing cutting-edge achievements, advanced technologies, advanced models, high-quality projects, and innovative products in the global agricultural sector.
Initiated last year, WAFI aims to serve as a world-class platform for advancing global agrifood innovation. The conference is co-organized by the local government of Pinggu District of Beijing, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China Agricultural University and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Global experts in Beijing explore strategies to realize low-carbon agrifood systems
