The World Digital Education Conference was held from Feb 13 to 14 in Beijing. Yang Dan, president of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) and deputy secretary of the CPC BFSU committee, attended the conference. Also present at the event was Tang Jinlan, dean of Beiwai Online and deputy secretary-general of the BFSU Artificial Intelligence and Human Languages Lab.

Teachers from the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, the School of English and International Studies, the Faculty of French and Francophone Studies, the School of Russia, the Department of Hispanic and Portuguese and the School of Arabic Studies provided multilingual simultaneous interpretation and document translation services at the conference and parallel forums. Their excellent translation skills and professionalism were acclaimed by the Ministry of Education, the host of the conference, and participants from China and abroad.

Yang Dan (sixth from left), BFSU president and deputy secretary of the CPC BFSU committee, poses in a group photo with BFSU teachers who provide translation services at the World Digital Education Conference. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

Themed "Digital Transformation and Future of Education", the two-day event attracted representatives from 130 countries and regions across the globe. Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng presided over the opening ceremony and Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan addressed the event.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, Vice-President of the Philippines and Secretary of Education Sara Duterte, Guy Parmelin, Swiss federal councilor and head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO, and Leonardo Garnier, special advisor of the UN Secretary-General for the Transforming Education Summit, delivered speeches via video link.

Huai gave a keynote speech at the main forum of the conference, which was followed by remarks made by officials of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank and the UN Children's Fund, as well as by education ministers, ambassadors to China and presidents of renowned universities of multiple countries.

At parallel forums, ministers of education and university presidents discussed topics such as “digitalization empowers high-quality development of basic education”, “digital transformation and development of vocational education”, “digital revolution promotes the innovative development of higher education” and “evaluation of smart education development”, summarized previous achievements and sought broader prospects for growth and cooperation.