Chinese Government provides RMB 96,903,800 grant for Phase 1 of Smart Universities (Classroom) Transformation Project

In late September 2019, the Chinese Government signed a cooperation agreement with the Government of Pakistan for Phase 1 of Smart Universities Transformation Project, also known as the Smart Classroom Project. Then, on October 8, 2019, the Chinese Government and Pakistan Higher Education Commission (HEC) signed letters of exchange, which committed RMB 96,903,800 (about USD 13.05 million) of grant funding for this Phase 1 of this project. The Smart University Transformation Project aims to upgrade 124 public universities across Pakistan through advanced information and communication technology (ICT) from China. The first phase involves the development of 100 smart classrooms at 50 public universities in 49 cities. The purpose of Phase 1 is to act as a pilot program in which 50 universities will install "main smart classrooms" and the other 50 will install "branch smart classrooms". Classrooms will be equipped with TVs, smart boards, cameras, speakers, digital textbooks, and video conferencing tools. In November 2020, the Pakistan HEC posted an official Request for Proposal (RFP), limited to only "pre-qualified Chinese bidders." China Railway Signal & Communication Shanghai Engineering Bureau Group Co., Ltd., one of the three pre-qualified bidders listed in Annex V of the same document, was selected as the implementing contractor for Phase 1. Works began in September 2021 and were originally scheduled for completion in November 2022. A smart classroom was at the academic complex of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) was officially inaugurated in November 2022.

Additional details

1. This project is also known as the Smart Classroom Project. The Chinese project title is 智慧教室项目 2. In 2015, the Pakistan Higher Education Commission (HEC) started a version of the Smart University Project. Its purpose was to equip university campuses with blanket WiFi coverage, in order to enable the deployment of other smart instruments as needed (see "Factual situation"). This was carried out without Chinese involvement.

Number of official sources

13

Number of total sources

23