Construction started at the end of March of the Compass Sat Nav Industry Park in Chongqing’s Two River New Area. This is a local government investment costing Rmb5bn and covers a planned area of about 20 hectares. One third of the land will be developed in the first phase. About 100 companies are expected to enter the park, including a state-level R&D centre, an operational centre and a testing centre, with 10,000 people expected to be employed in total. By 2020, the park’s industrial output is expected to reach Rmb50bn.

Compass is a global navigation satellite system developed independently by the Chinese similar in principle to GPS in the US and EU’s Galileo. China has launched seven Compass satellites since 2006 and they are expected to cover Asia by 2012.

The building of Compass Sat Nav Industry Park will allow Chongqing to develop its new and high-tech industry.