BEIJING, July 18 -- China is readying to support the large-scale application of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, with plans to designate a number of pilot cities to demonstrate the application of BeiDou in mass consumption, manufacturing and emerging sectors such as Industrial Internet and Artificial intelligence (AI), according to an announcement issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The large-scale application of Beidou has now entered a critical stage of marketization, industrialization and internationalization, the announcement says.

In an effort to enable BeiDou's empowerment of various industries, China will extend support to cultivate leading enterprises, improve product quality, promote BeiDou applications, and build a robust industrial ecosystem, according to the announcement.

The announcement outlines that the pilot projects will focus on three areas, namely, mass consumption, manufacturing and integrated innovation.

In the field of mass consumption, pilot cities will focus on areas such as smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, shared travel tools and low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles. Enterprises will be encouraged to develop and manufacture BeiDou products, thereby continuously improving the supply capacity of these products.

In the field of industrial manufacturing, pilot cities will accelerate the application of BeiDou in key areas such as automobiles, ships, aircraft and robots, the announcement says.

Local governments should encourage the construction of platforms related to the Internet of Vehicles and the Intelligent Network, and expand the proportion of commercial and passenger vehicles equipped with BeiDou systems.

In the field of integrated innovation, new scenarios for "BeiDou Plus" applications will be explored. The innovative applications of the BeiDou system in emerging industries such as the Internet of Vehicles, the Internet of Things, the Industrial Internet and AI will be promoted.

This will facilitate the deep integration of BeiDou applications with new scenarios like smart cities, intelligent transportation, smart logistics, smart maritime and precision agriculture, the announcement says.