The APEC University Leaders’ Forum took place in the central city of Da Nang on November 8 with the participation of nearly 60 representatives from universities, businesses and State management agencies in the region.

Delegates at the forum (Source: VNU-Hanoi)

The forum aims to build and promote links between governments, universities and businesses as well as turn tertiary education into one of the important factors in sustainable development in each nation, contributing to regional and global prosperity.

President of the Vietnam National University-Hanoi, Nguyen Kim Son, said the forum provides a venue for university leaders to meet and share experience in higher education administration in the digital era and internet of things and contributes to enhancing bilateral and multilateral cooperation between leading universities in the region.

Vietnam is pushing ahead with economic restructuring and tertiary education reform, he said, adding that the forum creates a good chance for Vietnamese universities to learn experience in development reform.

He expressed his belief that with the intellectuality and creativity, APEC universities will create a new driving force for APEC cooperation and become an important pillar alongside those in economics, politics and trade.

Jointly organised by Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training and the Vietnam National University-Hanoi, the forum consists of two sessions on “Sustainability, Big Data and Asia-Pacific Challenges” and “Employment, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence”.

The first session focused on promoting partnership to create innovative and sustainable measures to tackle climate change, mitigate risks from natural disasters, and address the social gap and aging population in the Asia-Pacific region, among other issues.

Meanwhile, the second session looked into how to develop labour forces which are capable of analysing data science to support sustainable economic development and prosperity in the region and challenges posed for tertiary education in providing necessary skills for students to meet the requirements of the fourth industrial revolution.

Established in 1989, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum comprises 21 economies, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong-China, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam.

APEC represents about 39 percent of the world’s population and contributes 57 percent to global GDP and 49 percent of international trade.-VNA