Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi announced a strategic cooperation agreement with Hubei province.

Under the strategic cooperation agreement, Xiaomi will join hands with the Yangtze River Industry Fund to initiate a CNY12 billion industrial fund, which will be used to support business expansion of Xiaomi and enterprises covered by Xiaomi's supply chain, or "ecological chain".

Xiaomi has already established two service sites in Hubei, one in Wuhan and one in Xiantao. There is no Xiaomi supply chain enterprise in Hubei yet. Xiaomi calls its supply chain ecosystem an "ecological chain", which is a smart hardware incubator.

At the end of 2016, Xiaomi's founder, chairman and CEO Lei Jun said in open letter that the annual revenue of Xiaomi smart hardware ecological chain was expected to reach CNY15 billion in 2016. So far, Xiaomi has invested in 77 smart hardware ecological chain enterprises, of which five are valued at over USD1 billion. The products cover smart wearable devices, water purifiers, and air purifiers. In addition, Lei said Xiaomi will invest in 100 ecological chain enterprises within five years and the company's total revenue is expected to be over CNY100 billion in 2017.

The Yangtze River Industry Fund was founded on December 30, 2015 and its sole mission is industry development, focusing on strategic emerging industries. With a global vision, it extensively integrates advantageous resources such as funds, projects, and talents to drive the breakthrough development of strategic emerging industries in Hubei.