KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today lauded the Saudi Arabian government’s commitment to increase the number of full scholarships for Malaysian students to pursue their studies in the Kingdom next year.

Najib said the additional allocation from Saudi Arabia would complement and add up to the government’s allocation of RM4.3 billion in scholarships for Malaysian students under the 2017 Budget.

"This is certainly is an encouragement and will provide bigger opportunity to more Malaysian students to pursue their education to the highest level,” the prime minister said in his latest posting on Facebook.

Najib said he believed Malaysian students would benefit so much from the scholarships.

Yesterday, Head of the Cultural Mission at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia here, Dr Zayed Al-Harithi said the decision to increase the scholarships was made after over 300 applications were received from Malaysian students last year.

At present, he said more than 100 Malaysian students are studying in Saudi Arabia. — Bernama