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Teachers question Chinese firms role in Cyber-Ed deal(Philippine Daily Inquirer Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) WHAT DOES A CHINESE COMPANY THAT manufactures X-ray machines and other state-of-the-art airport security equipment got to do with the governments Cyber Education Project (CEP)? Militant teachers raised the question as they asked the Department of Education yesterday to explain the details of the memorandum of agreement with China covering the $460-million CEP. The agreement requires the DepEd to team up for the project with Tsinghua Tongfang Nuctech Company (Nuctech), a Chinese company that has no expertise in satellite-based distance learning, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said. The agreement was signed by Trade Secretary Peter Pavila and Dr. Kang Ke Jung of Nuctech in Boao, China, last April. Hu Haifeng, the 35-year-old son of Chinese President Hu Jintao, is president of Nuctech, a company that is also engaged in food processing and radioactivity monitoring. No expertise Quoting from the firms website, ACT chair Antonio Tinio said neither the manufacture of satellite equipment nor the application of satellite broadcasting or other forms of information and communications technology education are listed among [Nuctechs] areas of expertise. Why then is the DepEd teaming up with a manufacturer of X-ray machines? he said. The website describes Nuctech as one of the worlds leading suppliers of state-of-the-art container inspection systems with exports to over 60 countries worldwide, including Australia, South Korea, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Venezuela, United Kingdom, and the Philippines. ACT said that the Bureau of Customs acquired 10 sets of Nuctech cargo scanners worth P400 million in 2006. Tinio said the DepEd has repeatedly said the CEP will be undertaken in partnership with the Beijing-based Tsinghua University, which is recognized for its expertise in the use of ICT for distance education. But the [memorandum agreement] was signed not by Tsinghua but by Kang who is chairman of Nuctech, Tinio pointed out. Tinio noted that Nuctech maintains close ties with the engineering [and] physics department of Tsinghua University from which it derives its core technologies. Contacted in Cebu City, Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus said there was nothing irregular about the involvement of Nuctech in the ambitious project. Tsinghua Holdings of Tsinghua University owns at least 100 subsidiary companies involved in technology, including Tsinghua Tongfang Nuctech, Lapus explained. The bottomline is Tsinghua University, the undisputed leader in open and distance learning, is the Chinese-government designated contractor for the project, subject, of course, to pertinent Philippine laws, he said. The CEP aims to fill the gaps in the education system by using satellite technology to deliver key learning concepts and other educational services to every school in the country through TV screens. Investment Only last week, President Macapagal-Arroyo announced she was suspending the CEP in the wake of the controversy caused by allegations of bribery in the $329-million national broadband project. This week, however, the President pressed anew for the implementation of the CEP, saying it was an investment that the government should make to reduce poverty in the country. Both the NBN and CEP are to be financed by concessional loans from China, because of which they have apparently been awarded to Chinese-based contractors. Tinio said Nuctech enjoys a unique business advantage in international business circles because its president is the son of the Chinese President. Critics have pointed to the success of Nuctech as a classic example of how Chinas rulers use political power for personal gains by cornering lucrative government contracts, a situation that should be thoroughly familiar to Filipinos, he said. It would appear that Nuctechs favored status extends to Chinas foreign policy with Hu Jintaos government using tied loans to developing countries to provide Nuctech with juicy contracts overseas, such as the CEP even if the project happens to be outside the firms core competence, Tinio said. He asked if Ms Arroyos championing of the CEP was a case of the Philippine President kowtowing to the Chinese leader whose own personal interests are tied to the project in question. Copyright 2007 INQ7 Interactive Inc, Source: The Financial Times Limited |