Professor Sun Zao from XJTU delivers a speech at the forum.

The 2025 SCO Digital Economy Forum – Theme Forum of University Cooperation was recently held at the Tiankai High-Tech Innovation Park in Tianjin, with ‌Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU)‌ invited to participate.

Representatives of universities across SCO member states, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan – along with over 200 scholars, experts, and student delegates from top Chinese universities like Peking and Tsinghua – engaged in discussions.

Professor Sun Zao‌, deputy secretary of the CPC XJTU Committee, delivered a speech titled "Exploration and Practice of Digital Technology Empowering Higher Education". He emphasized that the empowerment of higher education by digital technology is an inevitable trend of the times, as technological advancements are expanding the boundaries of education, evolving demands are setting new requirements for talent cultivation, and policies are providing support for educational digitization.

In recent years, XJTU has conducted a series of innovative digital education practices. It has promoted the formation of the SCO Digital Education Community, facilitating the sharing of high-quality educational resources and supporting regional educational equity and sustainable development through initiatives such as collaborative rule-building, platform-sharing, and capacity enhancement.

The forum also marked the ‌launch of the "SCO Digital Economy Universities Alliance,"‌ initiated by SCO member universities. ‌Professor Cheng Maoyong‌ of XJTU signed the agreement on behalf of the university. The alliance will foster a high-level education community through the principles of "consultation, co-construction, and sharing", promoting cross-border collaboration in digital economy research and sustainable development.