China – With the development of the Compass Navigation Satellite System, the total output of China’s satellite application industry will be 300 billion yuan by 2015, demonstrating the massive potential of the market, according to Cao Chong, the director of Compass Civil Application Market and Industrialization Expert Commission, at the recent 2008 China (Hefei) Forum on Compass Navigation Technology and Industrial Development.
The Compass System is a satellite navigation system independently developed by China. It boasts navigation, positioning and timing functions.
The Compass System, US’s GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and the EU’s GALILEO are regarded as the four major global navigation satellite systems.
Cao Chong also said, there are nearly 2,000 manufacturers involved in navigation satellite applications in China and about 800 out of them are industry specialists. However, most of the manufacturers are medium and small-sized enterprises.
“The Chinese government should inject more funds into this sector to drive and direct development of the whole industry”, he added.
