Now that it is in place, the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System provides Chinese users with decimeter-accurate positioning information in most areas and centimeter-accurate positioning information in some specific regions. Ran Chengqi, the spokesman for the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, has announced that three or four satellites will be sent up into space in 2015. Ran also shoulders the responsibilities of director for the China satellite navigation system management office.

This started offering services to China and the neighboring countries in the Asia-Pacific region in December, 2012. As an important part of the national space information infrastructure, the Beidou satellite navigation system forms a complete industrial system that encompasses basic products, satellite terminals and services of positioning, navigation and time. China now possesses the key technological knowhow around Beidou satellite location chips and modules which can compete against similar foreign products in terms of performance and price. The Beidou navigation system is widely used in sectors such as transportation, marine fisheries, hydrological monitoring, and phone-based navigation systems. To date, the Beidou navigation system has been accepted by the International Maritime Organization as the third global satellite navigation system and has won recognition from the International Civil Aviation Organization and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project.

At the end of March 2015, China successfully launched its first new-generation Beidou navigation satellite. Since then, the navigation system has been able to expand its services from regional to global users. It is planned that the global navigation system should be complete by 2020.

Ran Qirang said that the Beidou satellite navigation system will tap into opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative, and will engender further cooperation with other satellites. He added that during the process, China will step up cooperation with researchers working with other satellite navigation systems, push the Beidou Global Navigation Satellite System into the global market, and promote this system as a well-known Chinese product across the globe.