BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.

UAV FOR PLATEAU

AR500C, China's first unmanned helicopter for plateau regions, has completed its maiden flight recently in the eastern province of Jiangxi, sources with the developer said.

The maiden flight took place on May 20. After take-off and before landing, the plateau unmanned aerial vehicle flew for about 20 minutes, according to its developer, a helicopter research institute in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, under the Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

BEIDOU PRODUCTS

China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has offered services to more countries and sectors, said a white paper setting out the country's satellite navigation industry development.

In 2019, BDS products were exported to more than 120 countries and regions, an increase of 20 over the previous year, according to the white paper issued by the Global Navigation Satellite System and Location Based Service Association of China.

QR CODE

China's digital economy has gained growth momentum from QR code technology amid the COVID-19 epidemic, an industry report showed.

The volume of business transactions using QR codes soared by 25.86 percent year on year in the first quarter this year, according to the report jointly released by WeChat, Tencent Research Institute and Tsinghua China Data Center.

COVID-19 SYSTEM

A system to predict the spread of COVID-19 globally will be launched online on Monday, Chinese researchers said.

The Global COVID-19 Prediction System is established by the collaborative innovation center of western ecological safety led by Lanzhou University in northwest China's Gansu Province.

The system will predict the daily numbers of infection cases for 30 consecutive days of over 180 countries around the world, taking into account the impact of climate and environmental conditions, population densities as well as government control measures.