China's home-grown BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) will expand its development in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, after an action plan was agreed among the three parties in Beijing on April 6.

Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province will cooperate in promoting the navigation and positioning services of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and developing it into a sector with a total output value of 120 billion yuan ($17.5 billion) by 2020.

Officials from Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province at the press conference for the cooperation to promote the navigation and positioning services of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in Beijing, April 6. [Photo/chinalbs.org]

Zhang Boxu, director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, said, "The local government will give more policy support to research and development and facilitate the integration of BeiDou navigation chips and multi-source sensors."

The application of BDS will focus on three fields, namely, emergency safeguarding of public security, transportation and logistics and old-age security.

Chinese bike-sharing startup Ofo Inc signed a deal with local company ChinaLbs International BV the same day to equip its bicycles with BeiDou-enabled smart locks to offer better-positioning services.

Chinese bike-sharing startup Ofo Inc signs a deal with ChinaLbs International BV to equip its bicycles with BeiDou-enabled smart locks, April 6. [Photo/chinalbs.org]

"We are glad to cooperate with Ofo to promote the development of the BeiDou navigation system in the bike-sharing industry, which is also one of the target areas of our company," said Cao Hongjie, general manager of ChinaLbs International BV.

The two partners will also jointly build a big data platform which will help offer better smart transportation services for the synergic development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.