On 26 October 2022, UNESCO-ICHEI, together with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (hereinafter as the Ministry), Nazarbayev University, and the Association of Libraries of Higher Educational Institutions of the Republic of Kazakhstan (hereinafter as the Association), jointly organized a roundtable on the theme "Integrated library information systems for accelerating the process of informatization of higher education in Central Asia". Around 60 representatives from government education departments, universities and suppliers of information systems and products from Central Asian countries and the Russian Federation participated in the roundtable and discussed the establishment of an integrated library information system in the region.

In the keynote presentation session, Mr. Xu Mingshun, Programme Officer at Asia-Pacific Programme Office, UNESCO-ICHEI, Prof. Marat Rakhmatullaev from Tashkent University of Information Technologies (Uzbekistan), Dr. Alexander Plemnek, Director of the Library Information Centre of Saint Petersburg State University (Russian Federation), and Mr. Peter Lapo shared related initiatives and practices on open educational resources at institutional, national and regional levels. Starting from the global trends of digital transformation of higher education and taking the challenges faced by Central Asian countries in the process of transformation as the entry point, Mr. Xu Mingshun took IIOE's contribution to the digitalization of higher education in Central Asia as the main line of his presentation, and gave a detailed review of the various exchanges and cooperation between UNESO-ICHEI and Central Asian countries. He said that UNESO-ICHEI plans to establish the first IIOE National Centre in Central Asia in Uzbekistan to further deepen the cooperation between UNESO-ICHEI and Central Asian region on the digital transformation of higher education.