The Belt and Road International Dialogue on Digital Commerce Talent Training was held at Tsinghua University on 18 May 2021 as part of the university's 110th anniversary. SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov took part in the event and delivered a speech to Dialogue participants.
Mr Norov noted that over its 20 years, the SCO has made a major contribution to ensuring security and development within the vast SCO area, which created a necessary and favourable environment for developing and expanding trade and economic cooperation within the SCO.
In his speech, he also noted the importance of training personnel for digital economy and e-commerce for the SCO countries.
"Experience has shown not only the importance and relevance of online platforms, but also reflected their success in creating new jobs as it formed a groundbreaking level of relations between suppliers and consumers on a global scale and leveled geographic and sociopolitical disparities, thus becoming a new driver behind global economic growth and stable employment during the post-pandemic period," the Secretary-General noted.
According to Mr Norov, it is critically important to take advantage of technological advances without leaving anyone behind in the post-pandemic digital world.
"The lack of digital literacy remains an obstacle to using necessary digital services that make a distance lifestyle possible," Norov went on to say.
The Secretary-General also emphasised that the SCO considers it important to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, to exchange experience in the digital economy, and to support the fair competition-based development of digital technologies.
"At the most recently held Moscow Summit of the SCO Heads of State, the heads of the SCO member states noted the importance of expanding all-encompassing interaction in digitalisation in order to reduce the digital divide for economic growth," Mr Norov said.
The International Dialogue participants were also updated on the activities of the Organisation for Promoting Digital Economy and E-Commerce in the SCO Member States. Vladimir Norov also said that a number of major international events are planned this year as part of the SCO activity, which will touch on the development of e-commerce, the digital economy, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud data and other related important matters.
In closing, the SCO Secretary-General called on International Dialogue participants to step up cooperation with the SCO member states and involve companies in the SCO region in order to train personnel and tap young talent in digital commerce.
"I'm convinced this will be a major contribution by China's scientific community, in particular, Tsinghua University, to promote and expand the digital economy and e-commerce within the SCO space," Norov said.
International dialogue was made possible through the joint efforts of the National Institute of Human Resources Outsourcing at Tsinghua University and the Alibaba Group. The dialogue centred on cooperation in training and education in digitalisation and internationalisation of digital commerce within the context of the Belt and Road Initiative and rapid development of cross-border e-commerce.
The event was held online and in person and attended by the head of the China-ASEAN Centre, experts and scholars from the Belt and Road countries such as Egypt, Kazakhstan and Pakistan, former leaders of China's Ministry of Commerce, academicians from the Chinese Engineering Academy, the heads of related national associations, professional academic and methodological committees from the Ministry of Education, business representatives, and experts from Tsinghua University. More than 600 universities and nearly 10,000 cross-border e-commerce companies took part in the dialogue.