Pakistan is set to become the fifth Asian country to use China’s domestic satellite navigation system, which was launched as a rival to the US global positioning system, according to a report yesterday.

The Beidou, or compass, system started providing services to civilians in the region in December and is expected to provide global coverage by 2020. It also has military applications.

Thailand, China, Laos and Brunei already use the Chinese system, which currently consists of 16 operational satellites.