In early 2001, the APEC Education Foundation (AEF) made its annual call for proposals specifically requesting projects focused on the use of ICT in education and on narrowing the digital divide.
Rather than splitting up its available funds among deserving projects, the AEF asked four groups submitted proposals to consider forming a single consortium project that would allow for the pooling of financial and knowledge resources and avoid unnecessary duplication.

Representatives from the four groups, CITE (University of Hong Kong), EDNET (represented by the United States and Singapore), KERIS (Korea), and the 2020 Communications Trust Group (New Zealand), met during the HRDWG meeting in Mexico City and agreed to form the APEC Cyber Education Cooperation Consortium (ACEC) under the auspices of the AEF. Finally, four groups established the Consortium of APEC Cyber Education Cooperation (ACEC) on June 27, 2001.

The consortium has established a Steering Committee comprised of at least one representative from each of the four participating groups. The Steering Committee will coordinate the activities of the consortium and monitor and evaluate the progress and outcomes of the projects. Chaired by KERIS (Korea Education & Research Information Service), the ACEC Consortium committee members agreed to make collaborative efforts to create an online education portal, construct both on and off-line educational communities and build human capacities of educators. At the 23rd HRD Working Group Meeting, ACEC Consortium was widely embraced by all member economies in a sense that it will facilitate the exchanges of useful resources and produce synergetic effects by close cooperation among APEC economies.

In order to achieve its purposes, ACEC partners will engage in three types of activities:

1. Construction of a web portal that provides access to the contributing projects and to materials produced by the participating groups;
2. Provision of mechanisms that foster educational communities, both on and off-line; and
3. Projects, such as training sessions and workshops, that build the human capacity of educators in the APEC region.

The partner organizations will work on their individual projects, but where projects overlap, they will collaborate. This consortium approach would be a catalyst for multiplying and expanding international cooperation of APEC education project.