BEIJING - By 2020, the scale of China's satellite navigation business will surpass 400 billion yuan ($58 billion), said an official at an academic conference on Wednesday.

Ran Chengqi, an official at Beidou Navigation Satellite System, told the Eighth China Satellite Navigation Conference that the Beidou System would account for 240 billion to 320 billion yuan of the market in 2020.

According to Ran, over 30 million chip modules of the system were sold in April, while its high-precision board cards and antennas were exported to more than 70 countries and regions, over 30 of which are along the Belt and Road.

The Beidou System made people's lives easier through aided driving, accurate farming and intelligent real estate management, said Ran.

Also at the conference, it was announced by Wang Li, chairman of China Satellite Navigation System Committee on Tuesday, that China will launch 18 Beidou navigation satellites by 2019.

Six to eight Beidou satellites will be sent into orbit in the second half of 2017, said Wang, citing that the system will be able to provide services for the Belt and Road countries by 2018.

By 2020, the Beidou satellites will form a complete global satellite navigation system, Wang added.