The Human Capacity Building Promotion Programme, a follow-up action
to the
Shanghai
APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation) meetings based on a
tripartite co-operation of government-business-academia using
Internet technologies, officially started yesterday.
The announcement was made by Chinese personnel officials and
representatives from multinational corporations and well-known
universities at a press conference held in Beijing.
The programme, initiated by the Chinese Government with 11 APEC
members as co-sponsors, and viewed as a "substantive contribution
to APEC by China," aims at promoting human capacity building and
strengthening economic and technological co-operations in the
Asia-Pacific region in the new century.
To
narrow the digital divide among APEC's 21 members, the programme
plans to offer free online training to 1,500 senior IT
professionals for its member economies, particularly developing
ones, in the next three years.
Meanwhile, the programme is expected to build a virtual classroom
to support e-learning for the masses, and a cyber forum to
encourage involvement of all stakeholders in APEC economies.
"Every preparation, headed by the Ministry of Personnel (MOP) as a
major part of the programme, has ensured the training plan will be
put into practice," MOP's Vice-Minister Hou Jianliang
confirmed.
The APEC human capacity building platform and the portal website
(www.apechcb.org.cn) have
been developed and opened by China with the support of Tsinghua
Tongfang Co Ltd and China Training Network.
The four most authoritative training courses for internationally
recognized professional certifications in the IT area today have
been selected for the 1,500 IT professionals, with computer and
online facilities reaching their designed position.
To
date, training and certifications on CCNA, CCNP, SCJP and OCP have
been provided by well-known IT corporations, including Cisco
Certified Network Associate, Cisco Certified Network Professional,
SUN Certified Java Programmer and Oracle Certificate
Professional.
Technological support for the programme by education/training
institutions, including Tsinghua
University, University of South California, Kyoto University
and China Training Network, has also taken place.
(China
Daily November 2, 2001)