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First Huawei pledged their support to the Canberra Raiders, then several others followed in a show of faith that's helped ease the financial pressure on the NRL club. That's despite the indefinite postponement of the 2020 NRL season. Huawei not only pledged to see out their current deal with the Raiders until the end of 2021, but are open to extending their time as the Green Machine's longest serving major sponsor. They made the announcement on Wednesday after The Canberra Times contacted them about their $1 million-per-year sponsorship package the day before. NRL clubs are under the pump with not only the games drying up, but all their revenue streams as well. It's why the Chinese telecommunications giant's pledge means so much. It comes as the federal government's JobKeeper program opened the door for some of the Raiders' staff to return to work in the coming days. Raiders chief executive Don Furner said it was a massive boost to ensure Canberra would still be a part of the NRL when - or if - it returned. MORE CANBERRA SPORT "That was really good news. You need positives in times like this and that was fantastic of [Huawei] to do that and some others have too, which is great," he said. "Denman Prospect, a local one, said, 'We're sticking by you'. I literally got off the phone from Richard Rolfe at Audi who said, 'Mate we're sticking by you'. "[Chief operating officer Jason Mathie] and I, when the time's right, have got to go round and see everybody and talk to them all. Certainly the initial feedback is encouraging and the support of Huawei is phenomenal. "Contractually they didn't have to do that. I know that's not the case with some other NRL clubs and I know that's not the case with other sports, they're having sponsors pull out. So we're lucky, we're very lucky." Huawei Australia director of corporate and public affairs Jeremy Mitchell said word came from head office in China to repay the faith the Raiders had shown them through their own tough times. The Australian government banned Huawei from being part of the 5G rollout, which has led to 500 jobs being lost in their Australian business over the past 12 months. Mitchell vowed they would continue to have a presence in Australia through things like wifi fitouts on metros, as well as their handset and modem sales. Their current deal with the Raiders ends after the 2021 season, but it could go on longer. "The Canberra Raiders have been very, very good to us. They've stuck through our bad times and so we thought this was a good opportunity to reciprocate that," Mitchell said. "We've signed up for the two years and hopefully our business is in a strong position that we can even roll that on further. "We love the partnership. We think it's been extremely successful for both parties and if our business operations enable us to continue that on we would love to do that."

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