Saudi education minister meets Canadian
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Education Yousef Al-Benyan has separately met Canadian and Iraqi ambassadors to the Kingdom.
Al-Benyan and Jean-Philippe Linteau discussed scientific cooperation between the Kingdom and Canada in the fields of public and university education, scientific research and innovation, as well as future cooperation opportunities.
The meeting also discussed the educational opportunities available to Saudi students after adding Canada as one of the new scholarship destinations under the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program.
The minister and Iraq’s envoy Safia Al-Suhail reviewed ways to develop bilateral relations in the educational and scientific fields under the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council, as well as enhancing cooperation mechanisms and exchanging expertise between the two sides.
The officials also discussed supporting efforts related to partnerships between universities in the two countries, and benefiting from scholarships offered by the Kingdom to Iraqi students to study in
Saudi Arabia’s defense industry is relatively new, dating back to the early 1970s. However, the country has made significant progress in recent years and is now considered a major player in the global market.
In the early years, the Kingdom’s defense sector was focused primarily on the assembly and repair of foreign-made weapons and equipment. More recently, the country has pursued self-reliance in military manufacturing.
This shift has been motivated by a number of factors, including the country’s vast oil wealth, its strategic location in the Middle East, and its desire to reduce its reliance on foreign imports
One of the key drivers behind this burgeoning industry is the aerospace and defense company Saudi Arabian Military Industries, or SAMI — a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund established in May 2017.
SAMI’s goal is to localize 50 percent of the Kingdom’s defense spending by 2030.
