XI'AN, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The second forum on BeiDou cooperation between China and Arab countries will be held in the first half of 2019 in Tunisia, sources at the 13th Meeting of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG) said.

Ma Jiaqing, deputy director of the China Satellite Navigation Office, said the country's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) will provide services to countries and regions involved in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative by the end of 2018. By around 2020, BDS will have gone global.

The first forum on BeiDou cooperation between China and Arab countries was held in 2017 in Shanghai. In April 2018, the China-Arab States BDS/GNSS Center was officially inaugurated in Tunisia.

"We will push forward the BDS system serving Arab countries in the future," Ma said.

The ICG aims to strengthen coordination and cooperation in satellite navigation, as well as promote its global application.

China became a member of the ICG in September 2007. The country's BDS is recognized globally along with the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), the EU's Galileo Positioning System and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).