The minister of economy from Lithuania, Viktor Uspaskich, visited community leaders—including the city council at its March 1 meeting—and local high- tech companies such as Advanced Micro Devices and Hewlett-Packard.

Uspaskich said his main mission in Sunnyvale was to look at how the city fuses education and technology as part of its culture. The Lithuanian official was on a one-week trip that took him to Los Angeles, Sunnyvale and Washington, D.C.

Lithuania, a country just slightly larger than West Virginia, with a population of more than 3.5 million people, has a highly educated workforce ready for technology. Uspaskich estimated that college graduates make up almost half the workforce in his country. Close to 80 percent of all young Lithuanians seek some form of higher education, a trait Uspaskich credits to an

environment that encourages intellectual growth.

"Lithuania doesn't have many natural resources, so you have to live by your wits and you have to create your own value," he said.

Lithuania has worked hard to establish itself in the western economic world since breaking from the Soviet Union 15 years ago. The country joined NATO and the European Union in 2004, and Uspaskich said his country is eager to begin the types of partnerships with U.S. companies that many countries in Europe are already enjoying.

"Even though our country is small, there is room for businesses and investors to grow," the minister said.

That partnership would benefit both sides because, by helping the Lithuanian high-tech culture grow, companies based here in Sunnyvale would expand their own operations.

And by modeling its industry after Sunnyvale, the minister said Lithuania hopes to provide the types of jobs its workforce is hungry for and prevent its citizens from moving outside the country or continent to find work.

"It's our role as the government to try to stop this process of the 'brain-drain,' " Uspaskich said. "And one of my goals is to get our educational system involved in this."

The Lithuanian government first noticed Sunnyvale after Vice Mayor Ron Swegles attended a conference on business and investment opportunities in the Baltic Nations—Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia—last December in London.

The Minister of Economy was already scheduled to be in the U.S. the first week of March, and because of contacts Swegles made, Sunnyvale was put on the itinerary.

"It's great anytime you have a delegate from a country coming to a city like Sunnyvale," Swegles said. "It's a plus for the city to be recognized."