VILNIUS, Aug. 4 -- Huawei's sponsorship of Lithuanian basketball federation (LBF) is a long term strategic win-win partnership, Huawei's general manager the Baltic countries told Xinhua here on Monday.

"Lithuanian basketball team is one of the best and has most passionate fans all over the world. We believe that our support will help Lithuanian basketball to achieve their long term goals, stay on top and bring more emotions to the fans," said Zhang Xibo, Huawei's general manager for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

"For Huawei, it is a unique possibility to present our company's values to our customers," Zhang added.

Huawei, a global ICT giant from China, signed a sponsorship agreement with LBF last Thursday.

The partnership includes support on an international tournament, scheduled from August 16 to 18 under the name of Huawei Cup 2014, as well as support on some LBF social projects and the Lithuanian student basketball league.

Lithuania will join Greece, New Zealand and Slovenia in Huawei Cup 2014 for the preparation of FIBA World Cup 2014 to be held in Spain from August 30 to September 14.

Lithuania's basketball team is one of the best with a great history and terrific fans, according to Zhang Xibo who believed that the cooperation would be "the best way" for the two sides to "be together with customers and to share the unique emotions only basketball can bring".

As one of the leading ICT solutions providers of the world, Huawei entered many countries with its products and solutions. "Products we produce are one of the ways to interact with the customers but it's not the only one," said Zhang.

"That`s why we are investing in long-term relationships in all the markets and we believe that together with our sponsoring and social responsibility strategy we will become one of the most trusted companies," he stressed.

"Huawei is one of the top and international telecommunication companies with stable and impressive growth. So it was easy to find a common ground with Huawei," said Arvydas Sabonis, president of LBF, one of the greatest basketball players in history, in an interview with Xinhua on Monday.

Sabonis stressed that LBF always "choose the best and the most reliable partners as we plan our sports and marketing activities ahead".

"We hope to extend our cooperation to social and educational projects that we run with kids to sum up with our national team' s activities," he added.

"We are excited that the leading Chinese telecommunication company Huawei agreed to patronise this tournament together with us," Sabonis said.

Lithuania's basketball team ranks the 4th based on FIBA's figures. It will start matches in Group D with Angola, Australia, Korea, Mexico and Slovenia for FIBA World Cup 2014 to be held in Spain from August 30 to September 14. Enditem