BEIJING, Dec. 27 (China Space News) -- China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has started to provide global service, according to a press conference of the State Council Information Office.

The positioning accuracy of the system has reached 10 meters globally and five meters in the Asia-Pacific region. Its velocity accuracy is 0.2 meters per second, while its timing accuracy stands at 20 nanoseconds.

By the end of 2018, there were a total of 33 BDS satellites operating in orbit, including 15 BDS-2 satellites and 18 BDS-3 satellites.

China plans to launch another 11 BDS-3 satellites and one BDS-2 satellite in the coming two years to form the complete global network, which will further enhance the global service performance.

China began to construct its navigation system, named after the Chinese term for the Big Dipper constellation, in the 1990s and started serving the Asia-Pacific region in 2012.

This year has seen the most intensive launch of the BDS satellites, with a total of 19 satellites being sent into space, setting a new record in the world navigation system construction.

As an important achievement during the implementation of reform and opening up over the past 40 years, BDS has been widely used in China's national economy.

More than 14,000 companies and organizations are doing business related to BDS, employing over 500,000 people.

The total number of satellite navigation patent applications in China has reached 54,000, ranking first in the world.

In China, about 6.17 million vehicles, 35,600 postal and express delivery vehicles, as well as 80,000 buses in 36 major cities, use BDS. The system is also used in 3,230 inland river navigation facilities and 2,960 marine navigation facilities.