RIYADH: The National Guard Ministry is studying the possibility of having two countries as guests of honor each year instead of one at the Janadriyah festival for culture and heritage, the Kingdom’s most prestigious annual festival.

This was revealed by National Guard Minister Prince Miteb bin Abdullah in an exclusive interview on Friday with MBC, the UAE-based Saudi private satellite TV channel.

“This is because of the large number of requests we received from our friendly countries to be hosted at the festival under the title of guest of honor,” he said.

“If we keep having only one country as guest of honor a year at the festival, as is the case now, we will not be able to respond to a long waiting list. It would probably take us 25 or 30 years to respond to all,” he added.

Prince Miteb said that the idea of having a guest of honor country at the festival was introduced in 2008 as a vehicle for showing appreciation to “our friendly countries and introducing their culture and heritage to Saudis, and at the same time introducing them to our local culture and heritage to promote a mutual cultural dialogue and understanding between Saudis and other nations.”

Since then, eight countries have had the title: Turkey in 2008; Russia in 2009; France in 2010; Japan in 2011; Korea in 2012; China in 2013, the United Arab Emirates in 2014; and Germany in 2016.

To show closeness to the Kingdom and the Saudi people, guest of honor countries at the festival are keen to include Saudi or Islamic elements in their presentation.

This year at the German pavilion, Germany’s leading business software company, SAP, a Saudi young IT expert explained to visitors advanced German software technologies on how real-time analytic solutions can drive innovation in the fields of smart cities, football and sports, and retailing. This is in addition to displaying Islamic artifacts brought especially from Berlin Museum.

The French pavilion in 2010 employed young Saudi graduates of French language from King Saud University as interpreters and public relations representatives to help Saudi visitors tour the pavilion. Also, the South Korean pavilion in 2011 employed Saudi girls who were studying Korean at the Korean Embassy in Riyadh to help female visitors tour the pavilion.

These countries are always given the best 2,000 sq. meters location at the heart of the festival area to set up their pavilions and show their rich culture and samples of their most recent advances of pride in different fields to the Saudi audience.

The festival, named after a camel race desert course in Janadriyah village, around 40 km northwest of the capital, has been the most prestigious national event organized by the Ministry of National Guard since 1985.

It features local Saudi handicrafts, folk dances, visual art exhibitions, children’s plays and poetry readings from all regions of the Kingdom, along with seminars on current issues tackled by top Saudi, Arab, Muslim, and international intellectuals and experts.