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Lei Jun, the founder and CEO of Xiaomi Inc, has on Sunday made two proposals on the development of Chengdu, the capital city of southwestern China's Sichuan province, at the Industrial Development Conference for National Central City, Chengdu.

Addressing the gathering on the topic of "Concept of Internet Plus drives the Transformation and Upgrade of Chinese Manufacturing", Lei said, "first, (Chengdu) should continue drawing investment and talents, notably drawing talents is relatively vital."

"Second, Chengdu has already boasted various of industries with strong foundations, therefore, the endogenous growth could help the city go further", the technology tycoon added.

Founded in 2010, Lei formed Xiaomi and hired a team of crack talent to quickly produce a gorgeous mobile phone OS and put it online in August of that year. Xiaomi has soon become famous for making mobile phones comparable to the iPhone—fast processors, large screens, and a sleek operating system called MIUI—but at half the cost. It may be even more famous for its chiefly online sales model and explosive growth.

The company sold 61 million phones last year, and for part of 2015 it was the top-selling mobile brand in China. Though it’s still private, last year investors said it was worth $45 billion.

Xiaomi also went on a hunt for the country’s hungriest cutting-edge startups, then invested in them. It is astonishing to see the ecosystem laid out.

"What was my experiences? Behind the innovation, thought and concept are the first, then comes to talents, followed by regulations and tactics", Lei said, "speaking of the industrial development, if Chengdu will highly emphasize on the construction of ecological chain and Industrial chain which forms an intact ecosystem, the enterprises could grow faster."

Email: lijia@nbd.com.cn