Pakistan, China Enjoy Strong Ties: Balighur Rehman

(@rukhshanmir)

Pakistan, China enjoy strong ties: Balighur Rehman

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Dec, 2016 ) : Minister of State for Education and Professional Training Engineer Balighur Rehman met with Director Chinese International Center for Higher Education Innovation (ICHEI) Li Ming and his delegation on Tuesday and discussed matters of mutual interest.

The Minister of State welcomed the delegation and said Pakistan and China enjoy strong ties which should further be strengthened through technological collaboration, says a press release. He talked about the current educational needs of Pakistan in general and issues of low literacy rate and role of non formal schools in particular.

He admired the use of ICT in Chinese institutes especially in Shenzhen. Moreover, he admired the proposal of UNESCO Category 2 centers, and said, "we would like ICHEI to help us implement ICT in our 18000 non formal schools." Basic agenda of the meeting was to introduce ICT in higher education and in non formal schools of Pakistan with the collaboration of China.

Representatives from SUSTECH, Weidong Cloud Education (partner of UNESCO) and Huawei talked about their respective contribution in the field of education in China and worldwide, with the use of ICT.

Similarly, representative from BECS, NCHD, and AEPAM gave presentations about their respective departments. Li Ming said ICHEI exploits the potentials of ICTs to support the expansion, improve quality, and promote equity in higher education in developing countries by drawing upon the strength of China's vast higher education system and the lessons learned from the advancement of higher education innovation in the more developed nations of the Asia-Pacific region.

Mission of ICHEI includes capacity building of policy makers, institutional leaders, and administrators to improve performance of public higher education institutions through the application of ICTs for innovation in management and improved gender equality.

Moreover, professional and technical advice for developing countries increases opportunities for research collaboration and student and faculty exchange programs are also in its mandate. He added that they were already collaborating with NUST and would like to work on UNESCO category 2 centers for higher education with Pakistan.

He also said they would be providing full scholarships for Pakistani students in China and would like to have more students and teachers exchange programs between the two countries. Delegation from China included Wang Duanrui, CEO Weidong Cloud Education, China, Guo Lang, Department of Mid East enterprise Training, Huawei, and other officials from UNESCO and SUSTECH, Shenzhen, China.

Meeting was attended by Federal secretary Haseeb Athar, former Senator Razina Alam NCHD, JEA Rafiq Tahir and other officials of the Ministry and NCHD, AEPAM and BECS.