On 24th February 2021, Ms. Wang Fang, Party Secretary of FLTRP, and Mr. Joe Lam, Managing Director of Pearson Education Greater China, held a meeting via videoconference. During the meeting, they exchanged their views on the business impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, plans for further development in the year ahead, and progress in ongoing projects.

In the meeting, Ms. Wang Fang and Mr. Joe Lam mentioned that the pandemic had impacted the coursebook business of both FLTRP and Pearson in 2020. On the other hand, the pandemic had also accelerated digital transformation and the development of online education. FLTRP and Pearson should actively meet the challenges ahead and strive to provide OMO teaching and learning solutions for students, teachers, schools and other institutions. 

Mr. Joe Lam shared Pearson’s strategic plan to turn itself from a business-oriented to customer-oriented company since Mr. Andy Bird was appointed as the corporation’s new CEO at the end of 2020. Pearson expressed the hope for deeper cooperation with FLTRP in consumer-oriented markets through co-publishing projects and joint marketing activities. Ms. Wang Fang spoke about Waiyan Zhisheng (“Voice of FLTRP”), FLTRP’s customer-oriented digital platform app, which provides customers with audiovisual coursebook resources, supplementary materials, self-study materials, readers and picture books in different foreign languages. The app will be upgraded with testing and assessment functions in the future. Ms. Wang expressed the hope that Pearson and FLTRP could jointly explore the implementation of new digital projects based on this app.

Both sides agreed that existing collaborative projects will need to be continually updated and upgraded. For example, FLTRP will strengthen the digital development of New Concept English, the most important project between the two companies, to provide a wider range of services to both corporate and individual customers.

Other participants in the meeting included Pearson’s Mr. Rao Zhen, VP-Sales & Marketing, Ms. Jill Li, Senior Sales Manager, and Ms. Zeng Zhen, Senior Licensing Specialist; Mr. Shang Qikun, CEO of Waiyan Online Digital Technology Co. Ltd; and FLTRP’s Ms. Yao Hong, Director of the Reference & Trade Publishing Department, Ms. Xing Yinshu, Director of the English Education Publishing Department, Mr. Shao Lei, Director of the International Division, and Ms. Li Dan, Rights Manager.