From September 26 to 28, 2021, the 2021 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit will be held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang. Director LI Ming of UNESCO-ICHEI was invited to present International Institute of Online Education (IIOE) at the Release and Presentation of Success Stories of Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace on September 25.

The theme of the 2021 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit is "Towards a New Era of Digital Civilization – Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace". This conference collected success stories from around the globe and presented them for the first time. The presentation aims to demonstrate success stories comprehensively and vividly illustrate international collaboration in cyberspace through sharing practices in global internet infrastructure, online cultural exchanges and mutual learning, innovative development of the digital economy, maintaining cybersecurity and building a global governance system in cyberspace. IIOE, the flagship programme of UNESCO-ICHEI, was selected from more than 200 declared projects worldwide through careful assessment by an international committee of experts and delivered a special presentation as a success story. Along with 12 international institutions including Huawei, Tencent, LinkedIn, National Radio and Television Administration, IIOE is the only educational project and UNESCO-ICHEI the only international organisation selected.

At the presentation of "Success Stories of Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future in Cyberspace," ZHUANG Rongwen, the Deputy Director of Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Chair of the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, and ZHENG Zhajie, the Deputy Secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Province Committee and the governor of the People's Government of Zhejiang Province delivered speeches, respectively. ZHUANG pointed out that the success stories selected focused on the theme, covered an extensive range of contents, and emphasised practicality. The epitome of these cases embodies the phenomenal mission of cyberspace in enhancing international education collaborations and the genuine aspirations of global society to co-construct a community with a shared future in cyberspace. ZHENG also mentioned that the idea of a community of a shared future in cyberspace demonstrated a collective focus on human development and that the presentation of success stories would inject new vigour into the construction of such a community of shared future in cyberspace.

Director LI Ming of UNESCO-ICHEI delivered a speech titled "IIOE-An Online Open Platform Promoting Digital Transformation of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Teachers in Developing Countries", introducing the work of IIOE and its important role in the digital transformation of higher education in developing countries in Asia and Africa. Director LI pointed out that IIOE, as a shared online education platform, adheres to the development principles of "extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefit" and fully integrates and adopts the education outcomes of different countries to promote multilateral cooperation and knowledge sharing in cyberspace.

Since its launching in April 2020, IIOE has focused on the urgent needs of HEIs in developing countries in delivering online teaching under the pandemic by organizing ten training sessions on online teaching in English and French, benefiting 2108 teachers from 307 HEIs and 46 countries. In addition, IIOE coordinated global partners to build over 600 online courses in Chinese, English, French and Arabic, and developed quality assurance tools, competency frameworks and relevant policy guidelines to support online and blended learning in HEIs. These efforts effectively compensated for the lack of free and open-assess resources for teachers' capacity building in developing countries. Through diverse approaches in curriculum, training, tools and policies, IIOE works closely with its partner HEIs, partner enterprises and organizations to take the digital transformation of higher education as a starting point and jointly build a shared future in cyberspace.

Director LI Ming also pointed out that in order to respond to HEIs' increasing needs for digital transformation in developing countries and achieve joint contribution and shared benefit for the IIOE partner network, UNESCO-ICHEI will initiate the building of IIOE national centres this year. With the support of the ministries of education in project countries and leveraging the expertise and leadership of partner HEIs, UNESCO-ICHEI will continue developing localized resources, tools and policy guidelines to benefit more higher education professionals and join forces to enter the shared digital future in cyberspace.

World Internet Conference

The World Internet Conference (WIC) is an annual global Internet event initiated by China and held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang. The conference is hosted by the Cyberspace Administration of China and Zhejiang Provincial People's Government to build an international platform that connects China and the world, as well as a Chinese platform for global Internet sharing and governance, allowing countries to seek consensus in disputes, reach collaboration in agreement and achieve mutual benefits in partnership.