On April 8th, 2021, UNESCO-ICHEI held an official meeting with the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan (UET Lahore), the rotating presidency unit of the International Institute of Online Education (IIOE), on its 2021 work plan. After a thorough discussion, the two parties agreed on three key points: the quality assurance for online education assessment, the expansion of IIOE network, and content development and localization of IIOE training resources.Professor Li Ming, director of ICHEI, introduced the theme of IIOE in 2021, which would be "co-development". It seeks to attract more partner universities and enterprises to participate so as to meet the actual needs of higher education across Asia and Africa from various levels and dimensions. Additionally, as Professor Li pointed out, the reopening and rebuilding of education in the post-pandemic era remained a major concern for UNESCO and national governments, especially among developing countries. As a result, digital transformation of higher education and teachers' ICT capacity building lied at the heart in this process, and this is the role IIOE aims to fulfill by building such a supportive eco-system. Professor Syed Mansoor Sarwar, Vice Chancellor of UET Lahore, responded by agreeing with IIOE's 2021 work plan. He pointed out that UET Lahore pledged to take the lead among partner universities in completing IIOE's institutional quality assurance assessment and encouraging local teachers to develop and produce online and blended learning resources through a series of measures. It is believed that these approaches would allow them to gradually establish an elite team of master teachers and expand the network of qualified teachers in online and blended education. After piloting it in UET Lahore, he plans to compile its successful experience to share among other partner universities. IIOE will be a tool to practice South-South cooperation and will benefit more university teachers from Asian and African countries.For the next step, the rotating presidency unit will discuss in depth with the IIOE Secretariat to finalize two sets of IIOE frameworks for institutional quality assurance and teachers' ICT capacity, followed by a feasibility study of the IIOE's co-development mechanism, as well as taking the lead in the pilot practice.

(Participants from the rotating presidency unit: President Syed Mansoor Sarwar, Dean Waqar Mahmood, Professor Usman Ghani, Researcher Tahir Naeem; Participants from ICHEI: Li Ming, Han Wei, Wang Guobin, Li Fan, Feng Siyuan, Hassan, Duan Xiaotong)