As the global working environment is becoming increasingly competitive, interconnected, and the economies all around the world are impacted by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there is a need to improve the skills of the population to meet the demands of the future labor market. In the meantime, the epidemiological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have challenged higher education institutions in Asia-Pacific and Africa to provide equitable access to quality education, while also continuing the learning process vital for sustainable development. Considered the fastest-growing regions in the world, APEC economies and Africa together have tremendous potential to achieve common goals. Cooperation between African and APEC economies in terms of education is crucial to ensure a worthy response to emerging challenges.
Participants of this session are invited to discuss ways to strengthen APEC-Africa cooperation by fostering academic exchanges, pedagogical practices, and identifying strategies to improve educational outcomes.
Key topics:
• The specifics of higher education: APEC and African perspectives;
• Financing educational projects and attracting investments in higher education;
• Facilitating international exchanges, academic mobility, and cross-border education;
• Exchanging pedagogical practices and assisting in developing teachers’ professional capacities;
• Competencies vital to professionals in Asia-Pacific and Africa;
• STEM education as an instrument of inclusiveness.

Moderator:
Nataliya Zaiser — Chair of the Board, Africa Business Initiative Union (online)

The pervasiveness and ubiquity of all digital-related changes have accelerated over the past 20 years and continue to grow exponentially. Digital technology is becoming increasingly intertwined with everyday life: from schooling to political engagement and even financial and health management. Developments in digital technology, and the speed at which they emerge, drive innovation and new applications that touch our lives in different and often profound ways. One of the most noticeable influences of digital technologies is the way they transform people’s communications, providing completely new tools for overcoming physical and bureaucratic obstacles, facilitating economic, socio-cultural, and even academic interactions. Along with the economy and society becoming more digitized, education, being also changed by tech trends, remains the basis for human resource development, equipping people with skills, knowledge, and competencies. Participants are invited to share their unique experience of adjusting educational models to the spreading digitalization.
Key topics:
· Universities as platforms for high-professional 21st century training;
· Change in education models in mechanics brought by digital transformation;
· Challenges and barriers for digital education;
· International opportunities for cooperation;
· Improving educational equity and inclusion with technology.

Moderator:
Ilya Mirin — Deputy Director for Development, Institute of Mathematics and Computer Technology, Far Eastern Federal University

Panellists:
Ilya Volynkin — IT Architecture Development Director, Gazprom-Media Holding (online)
Eric Yen-Liang Lin — Director of Media Education Center, NTUT (online)
Evgeny Kaganer — Dean for Academic Affairs, Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
Huynh Quyet Thang — President, Hanoi University of Science and Technology (online)
Steven Matainaho — Secretary, Papua New Guinea Department of ICT (online)
Anatoly Nikolaev — Rector, Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University
Sergey Salikhov — First Vice-Rector, National University of Science and Technology (MISiS) (online)
Olga Skorokhodova — Deputy Director for Government Relations, Google Russia (online)
Kaeko Chiba — Associate Professor, Faculty of International Liberal Arts, Akita International University (online)

As APEC economies are getting closely intertwined and overlap with their neighbors, the alignment of integration projects becomes a priority. Fostering synergies between the Greater Eurasian Partnership and APEC can benefit all parties once stronger economic ties get forged. Trade and regional integration in Eurasia will inevitably affect the sphere of education. Thus, cooperation in higher education can become one of the most flexible forms of merging APEC and Greater Eurasia.
The session attendees are to identify the prospects for educational cooperation and future ways of rapprochement.
Key topics:
• Academic mobility, experience sharing, and collaborative projects: identifying points of convergence in higher education;
• Training professionals and improving employability: universities’ outlook;
• Providing technological breakthrough to enhance higher education in Asia-Pacific and Eurasia;
• Aligning educational efforts to foster common markets.

Moderator:
Kirill Barskiy — Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

Panellists:
Ganbold Baasanjav — Head of Office, ESCAP Subregional Office for East and North-East Asia (online)
Fedor Voytolovskiy — Director, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO); Corresponding Member, Russian Academy of Sciences (online)
Alexey Maslov — Acting Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (online)
Anastasia Minina — Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Docent, Vice-Rector for International Affairs, Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI"
Vera Skorobogatova — Leading Researcher, Institute for Demographic Research of the Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences