Intl educators endorse knowledge-driven BRI

Cooperation among countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative has shifted from an infrastructure-led approach toward knowledge-driven development, with joint research, talent cultivation and inclusive innovation taking center stage, global educators said at the BRIDGE forum in Beijing on Friday.

"China-Africa cooperation has moved beyond railways and roads into the knowledge economy," said Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau, Nigeria's ambassador to China.

He made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road: Innovation, Dialogue, Growth and Exchange forum. The four-day event, organized by the University of Science and Technology Beijing, attracted more than 700 experts from over 40 countries and regions.

Reflecting on the 55 years of diplomatic relations between China and Nigeria, Dambazau said the partnership had previously been defined by trade and infrastructure, but its next phase would focus on knowledge and people.

"The next phase of China-Africa cooperation is not about who gives and who receives. It is about what we build, teach and invent together," he said.

"Education provides the language, science provides the tools, and technology provides the engine," Dambazau said. "We must move from quantity to quality, from government to government to people to people, from raw commodities to value addition."

Mundia Muya, vice-chancellor of the University of Zambia, echoed Dambazau's views, noting that international cooperation should go beyond visits, meetings and the signing of agreements to deliver tangible outcomes, including shared research, joint institutions, better-trained young people and practical solutions.

"The Belt and Road Initiative has created many new opportunities for connectivity and cooperation," said Muya, citing a joint laboratory established by China and Zambia to promote green and safe mining.

Benard William Chitunga, chancellor of the Co-operative University of Kenya and a partnership specialist at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, highlighted the importance of multilateral cooperation to promoting shared development.

Chitunga said the main challenge facing many countries in the Global South was not a lack of resources, but an inability to translate their potential into productivity and capabilities.

Development aid and policy advice, he said, had often arrived "like a tailor with a beautifully made suit — designed for somebody else", with African countries too often told to change themselves to fit imported development models.

"Africa must learn from the world — it needs technology, capital, infrastructure, global markets and strong institutions. But learning from the world should never require Africa to lose itself," he said.

The value of China's development path, Chitunga added, lies in its confidence to pursue modernization on its own terms, a lesson with profound relevance for African countries.

Yuan Zhaolin, an associate professor at the School of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, shared insights from his eight years of work in Africa, where he has helped advance the local mining industry.

Yuan said his research focuses on integrating artificial intelligence into the entire metal value chain.

"AI plus mining, AI plus materials, AI plus metallurgy — what might be termed interdisciplinary research elsewhere is something that actually solves problems in Zambia," he said.

His team developed an intelligent system tailored to local conditions in Zambia, deliberately simplifying its design to prevent it from becoming "e-waste" after the researchers left. The team also trained local workers to operate the system, ensuring its continued use.

"Nowadays, we are talking about AI and computing power," Yuan said. "Computing power ends at electricity, electricity ends at energy, and energy ends at minerals. BRI countries like Zambia stand right at the starting point of this chain."

Yuan said AI offers African countries an opportunity to move beyond exporting raw resources, and develop the capacity to produce higher-value goods.

"They don't need a professional research and development team to become users of intelligent systems," he said.

"Truly valuable technology does not push a small few even higher. It lifts more people across the divide of development, so that all can move together toward modern prosperity," Yuan said.