Located in Shenzhen, China, UNESCO-ICHEI was approved on November 13, 2015 by the 38th General Conference of UNESCO. It is the 10th Education Sector UNESCO Category II centre in the world and also the 1st Category II centre for higher education in China. Relying on the advantages of Shenzhen's information and communications technology (ICT) sector and drawing upon China's experience with the massification of its higher education, UNESCO-ICHEI aims to meet the local demand for quality higher education resources and to support Asian and African countries to improve the quality of higher education and promote educational equity. With the above aims, UNESCO-ICHEI has been carrying out higher education cooperative projects with countries along the Maritime Silk Road. Through various forms of knowledge sharing and capacity building, UNESCO-ICHEI exports Shenzhen's ICT products and services to the project countries to provide with them intellectual support and human resources for local industrialization and informatization. Meanwhile, UNESCO-ICHEI also conducts research on education in the countries along the Maritime Silk Road, aiming to become an influential educational think-tank and an international higher education platform for information sharing and communication on innovative thoughts and practices.