NBA star Yao Ming signed a two-year deal with consumer electronics maker Garmin International Inc. to help promote the company's global positioning satellite system.

The 2.29-meter center for the Houston Rockets is one of the most popular personalities in his native China, an exploding economy Garmin wants to tap into, reports said from Kansa City, Missouri.

Garmin, incorporated in the Cayman Islands but headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas, says it wants to use Yao to not only push the Garmin brand but expand awareness of GPS technology in general.

Yao will begin appearing in print and television ads for Garmin next month. In his first ad, Yao uses the company's latest in-car navigation system to find a gas station in a remote part of southeast Texas.

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2005)