China plans to form a BeiDou network consisting of 35 satellites for global navigation services by 2020, said a white paper released by the State Council Information Office on Tuesday.

The country plans to start providing basic services to countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-century Maritime Silk Road in 2018, said the document titled "China's Space Activities in 2016."

China is to continuously enhance the service capacities of the BeiDou-2 in the next five years, according to the white paper.

It aims to provide all clients with more accurate and more reliable services through advancing the ground-based and satellite-based augmentation systems, it said.

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Satellite navigation network eyes more civilian roles
The Global Navigation Satellite System and Location-based Services Association of China said on Friday that it plans to expand the civilian applications for the country's self-developed global satellite navigation network - a "sat nav" rival to the US Global Positioning System - called the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, or BDS.

The association said it would hold a series of activities, including demonstrations and conferences, starting January. These will involve industry experts, interested companies and other stakeholders, in a move to seek new business for civilian use of the system's location-based services.

"Now we have already built the system connecting hundreds of cities in China, the next step will be to promote and boost the development of the Beidou's civilian use and to prosper," said Miao Qianjun, secretary-general of association.

Source: Xinhua News Agency