Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman will attend Ta’leem 2016, the fifth annual Saudi International Exhibition and Forum for Education from April 12 to 14.

France will be the guest of honor at the forum, according to Minister of Education Ahmed Al-Issa. He thanked King Salman for prioritizing the event, which would this year focus on investment in education to boost the economy.

Around 250 exhibitors from the Kingdom and abroad are expected to participate in the event. Al-Eissa said France was chosen as this year’s guest of honor because of its advances the education system, and because many Saudis are studying there on government scholarships.

“We wanted to have the French education experience introduced here in our country. This will help people learn more about it and have the chance to contact French education institutions directly so that they can explore studying possibilities,” he said.

The minister said that the theme of the event this year would be “Investment in Education” with a focus on how this can assist the private and public sectors.

In March 2015, French Ambassador to the Kingdom Bertrand Besancenot said during the celebration of the “Gout de France” (Good France) program that the number of Saudi students going to France for higher studies would be tripled over the coming years.

He had said there were 1,500 Saudi students studying at various universities in France, with an expectation this would rise to around 4,000.

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