Beijing. Smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi says it will continue to expand business and investment in Indonesia – a key market for its handheld and smart home gadgets.

"Since coming to Indonesia in 2014, Xiaomi has grown rapidly from a company with only 20 staff to around 2,000 people today," Christine Wong, Xiaomi's vice president of public and international affairs, said on Monday. 

Xiaomi Indonesia now employs 100 people in its main office, while the Xiaomi mobile phone factory in Batam employs more than 2,000 people.

The first product to roll out of the Xiaomi factory in Indonesia in February 2017 was the Redmi 4A phone, Wong told BeritaSatu on a visit to the Xiaomi Campus in Beijing. 

The new complex serves as one of Xiaomi's research and development centers for 5G technology and artificial intelligence.

Xiaomi was founded in 2010 and currently has more than 20,000 workers worldwide. Around 1,600 of its staff come from outside China and work on Xiaomi campuses in China and various locations around the world.

According to Wong, Indonesia is Xiaomi's most important foreign partner – the main reason why it is planning more partnerships with Indonesian companies.

Xiaomi held the Suppliers Summit in Batam last year and the Xiaomi Developers Conference (MIDC) in September in Jakarta.

MIDC attracted many Indonesian start-ups and individual developers to share their ideas on the latest smartphone tech. 

Djauhari Oratmangun, the Indonesian ambassador to China, said the government wants Xiaomi to continue collaborating with start-ups in Indonesia and recruit more young, creative-minded Indonesians to join the company.

"Looking at our demographics and projections of Indonesia's economic progress, Xiaomi must invest more in Indonesia," Djauhari said. 

Djauhari said Xiaomi should accompany a plan to launch its new product range next year with an "expansion of business networks and new investment in Indonesia."  

Although better known as a smartphone manufacturer, Xiaomi's biggest income now comes from internet-based services in an ecosystem supported by various smart home products made possible by combining 5G technology, artificial intelligence and other smart technologies based on the internet of things. 

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